It appears the LDF government under Pinarayi Vijayan has been hit by a crisis every five months. At least, in retrospect, that is how the jinx pans out. First it was E P Jayarajan, the CPM strongman, who had resigned following nepotism charges in the fifth month of the LDF’s tenure.
Then came the turn of A K Saseendran, the veteran NCP leader who returned to the pavilion in the tenth month, for alleged lewd phone talk, in what was a questionable honey trap planned by a TV channel to mark its launch. As if on cue, in the fifteenth month, some serious allegations have been levelled against state Transport Minister Thomas Chandy.
Chandy, also known as Kuwait Chandy because of his NRI roots, was never an easy pick for the chief minister as NCP’s replacement for Saseendran, given his business tycoon image. It was never a secret that Chandy, a third-time MLA from Kuttanad, was unhappy when Saseendran was the LDF’s pick from the two-MLA-strong NCP. Now, a barrage of allegations has been leveled against Chandy. The least serious of charges pertains to the misuse of Rs 28 lakh to tar a road that ends in front of Lake Palace Resort, one of the many business establishments owned by Chandy.
A more damning one for Chandy, who also holds the water transport portfolio, is the charge that six acres of Vembanan lake in Punnamada has been blatantly demarcated as a part of his resort. The public gaze is also on six acres of paddy land in Marthandam Lake, also in Kuttanad, that have been illegally filled in the past one year.
Curiously, it was annexed by the state government in 1980 from ‘landlord’ Murikken, who created history by cultivating paddy in land reclaimed from Vembanad. Chandy in turn bought out the farmers who were the beneficiaries of government largesse. Now, there is a revolt brewing in the NCP and an imminent split is on the cards. All things considered, the LDF government’s jinx seems all set to continue.