Adjournment motions are moved in the Assembly by the opposition to force the government to answer difficult questions of alleged administrative or governance failures like police atrocities or public health crisis or price rise.
Interestingly, the motion moved by the LDF in the Assembly on Wednesday worked in reverse. It was the LDF, particularly former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was put on the interrogation table.

The issue was the UDF government's allegedly inept handling of the power situation in the state. It was former minister and CPI MLA G R Anil who moved the motion. "We had not known power cuts for a long time in Kerala. When Sunny Joseph (power minister) assumed office, our youth finally understood what load shedding is," Anil said.

The power minister's response was on expected lines. The El Nino phenomenon, monsoon deficit, massive surge in power consumption and the poor planning of the previous LDF government.

And right at the outset, the power minister dismissed the LDF claim, articulated by Anil in the Assembly, that "there was not even a minute of power cut during the last 10 years of LDF rule". Sunny Joseph reeled out figures from the Tariff and Regulatory Affairs Cell. "In 2021-22 - 120; 2022-23 - 140; 2023-24 - 915; 2024-25 - 708; 2025-26 - 331. In the last five fiscals alone, there were 2214 load restrictions," the minister said.

But the trump card, as was expected, was the cancellation of the long-term agreement to purchase 465 MW for 25 years at ₹4.29 a unit. The long-term deal was for 850 MW and was struck on February 18, 2014, when Oommen Chandy was Chief Minister and Aryadan Mohammad was power minister. "After seven years of enjoying its benefits, the LDF government, for no sound reason, cancelled the deal for 465 MW," Sunny Joseph said.

The minister said that the KSEB kept writing to an indifferent government to take steps to restore the deal. "The seventh letter was in Malayalam," Sunny Joseph said with an exasperated laugh. "Hope was that at least this would convey the message," he said.

Finally, a Vigilance enquiry was done. "Has any action been taken (on the basis of this enquiry)? Has any irregularity been detected? As it turned out, the deal was squeaky clean. It had not caused any losses to the state government, instead provided only gains," the minister said.

The agreement was cancelled on May 10, 2023, based on a Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) order. (The cancelled deals were: 115 MW from Jhabua Power Limited at ₹4.15 per unit, 350 MW from Jhabua-Jindal Power Ltd/Jindal Thermal Power Company at ₹4.29)

The minister said that the Pinarayi government asked the KSERC to restore the deal. "But when," he asked. "On October 10, five months after the deal was struck down," he said.

In the interregnum, Sunny Joseph said that the KSEB had repeatedly asked the government to restore the deal and warned of the consequences for the state. "The government did not budge an inch. They realised their folly late and asked the ERC to restore the deal. But by the time the power companies found that it was more profitable for them to stop selling to Kerala. They sold this power, which should have come to Kerala, at higher costs to other states and made big profits," the minister said.

He said that the LDF government could only kill a deal that provided power at ₹4.29 a unit, nothing more. "After this, could they enter into any deal that could fetch power for at least ₹4.28," he asked.
"Of course, they did try," the minister said. "But no one responded to the tender. When a seller finally showed up, ₹6.29 per unit was the quoted amount. KSEB could not take it. After the next tender, the quote was ₹7.48 per unit," the minister said.

These were medium-term agreements, for seven years. A tender for long-term contracts was floated in July 2026. The quote was for ₹6.52. Once again, the government could not accept it. Tenders were floated many more times, but the minister said that the KSEB could not find a seller who could sell power at a price lower than ₹4.29 per unit.

Chief Minister V D Satheesan, too, joined the party. "What is it that you constantly keep harping about? Yes, neo-liberal policies. Kerala should know this. After scrapping a deal that gave power at ₹4.29 per unit, they purchased power for ₹8 to ₹14 a unit. Not just that, the LDF did not even bother to strike another long-term deal. If there was such a long-term agreement, we could have managed the crisis even better," the CM said.

He then made a loaded comment. "After cancelling this deal, with whom did you place orders to secure power for ₹8 and ₹14? I don't want to reveal the names here," he said. Adani Power was one of the companies that the LDF had entered into a deal for power purchase.

Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan's defence was that the deal was struck down by the KSERC, and not the LDF government. He said the KSERC had objected to the deal during the UDF term itself. The Commission under the leadership of T N Monoharan had said that the deal was entered into without getting clearance from the Union Power Ministry and the KSERC.

"But did we cancel the deal? Realising that it would have hurt Kerala we continued to purchase power under the deal," Pinarayi said. He said the KSERC decision to cancel the deal (in 2023) was only the finalisation of a stand the Commission had held since 2015. "But even then, the government used its special powers (Section 108 of the Electricity Act, 2003, which gives state governments the power to issue policy directions to State ERCs) to request the KSERC to restore the deal. The Commission was obliged to accept our request," Pinarayi said.

When Pinarayi tried to give the impression that his government did all it can to get the deal restored, the CM intervened, emphasised what his power minister had already said. "Now you say that you wanted the deal in place. But when did you use the powers under section 108 to ask for the restoration? Five months after the deal. Why was there such a delay," the CM asked.
Pinarayi ignored the poser.