Kochi: The opposition Congress on Sunday urged the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) to reconsider the decision to include Kerala Congress (B) leader and MLA K B Ganeshkumar in the state cabinet. The Congress call came in light of Ganesh Kumar's alleged role in the conspiracy to tarnish the reputation of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
Leader of the Opposition, V D Satheesan, stated that the CBI, investigating the solar sexual scandal, identified Ganesh Kumar as the chief conspirator in the case. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed his gratitude to Ganesh Kumar for allegedly tarnishing the reputation of Chandy, thus aiding Vijayan in securing power, Satheesan added.
LDF allies Ganesh and Ramachandran Kadannappalli are set to be inducted into the cabinet on December 29, following the resignations of Ahamed Devarkovil and Antony Raju on Sunday, in adherence to a power-sharing arrangement within the ruling front.
"Oommen Chandy still holds a special place in the hearts of Kerala's people. The attempt to tarnish his image with a fabricated incident occurred when he was elderly. CM expressing gratitude to the chief conspirator behind the case is unacceptable", said Satheesan during a press conference at the party office here.
"The Chief Minister and the LDF should reconsider the decision to appoint him as a minister," declared Satheesan, announcing the Congress-led United Democratic Front's decision to boycott the swearing-in ceremony. "UDF cannot participate in the swearing-in ceremony of an individual accused of conspiring to defame Chandy", he said.
VD Satheesan on Nava Kerala Sadas
The Congress's decision to boycott the swearing-in ceremony is also a protest against the reported attacks by the police and CPM on Congress workers who demonstrated against the government's Nava Kerala Sadas program, which concluded in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. VD Satheesan labelled the Sadas as a futile exercise. VD Satheesan labelled the Sadas as a futile exercise.
"The Nava Kerala Sadas has not yielded any result. We want to ask the chief minister if he could wipe the tears of even a single common man with the programme. People have realised that you were doing an election campaign at the state's expense," he said.
Satheesan ridiculed the chief minister for claiming that he had advised party workers to exercise restraint.
"On the final and 44th day of the yatra, the CM used the term restraint. Even when the police registered attempt to murder charges against DYFI workers who assaulted Youth Congress protesters at Kalliassery, the CM congratulated them saying they were engaged in a 'life-saving' act. The CM was questioning the rationale of the people," he said.
"The CM claimed that the UDF was planning to hold a hartal on the final day of his yatra. He must have dreamt about it. We have never taken any such decision," Satheesan reiterated, emphasizing that Vijayan is a coward. “If this is the kind of intelligence he is getting as the Home Minister, we should infer that it is so easy to mislead him,” Satheesan said.
Alleging that policing collapsed during the Nava Kerala Yatra with party workers and goons taking the law into their own hands, Satheesan stated that Kerala was becoming a 'gangster state,' akin to the final days of communism in West Bengal.
