THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the ninth session of the 14th Legislative Assembly, billed as the Budget session, commences business on January 22, the air would be filled up with a slew of issues for the ruling LDF Government and subject to the verve of the Opposition UDF to cash in on it, it can be expected to be stormy. The session will go into session with a reduced strength of one, risen with the recent demise of Chenngannur MLA K K Ramachandran Nair.
Though the session will have only 11 business days, including the presentation of a full annual budget by Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac on February 2, the government will have to obviously face the music on a cash crunch mood, over and above the widespread complaints still persisting on topics like the mishandling of Ockhi cyclone disaster aftermath, the hurdles cropping up in the time-bound execution of the ambitious Vizhinjam project, and the more punching alleged standstill in developmental works across the state under the local bodies.
Added to the government woes will be an expected onslaught of the UDF MLAs, even when targeting the BJP-led union government, for continuing to tax petrol and diesel exorbitantly, leaving the retail prices on a high and the option less consumers in the lurch. The Congress and the UDF are already on an agitation mode on the issue,and held statewide Assembly segment-wise protest rallies on Saturday evening.
If the last session of the Assembly had witnessed a GST buoyed government and Finance Minister waiting for a silver lining to appear for the state’s finances, harsh realities and withered expectations on the new tax regime and heavy revenue losses are bound to inflict mood swings and lamentations in the House, the indications of which are already out in the open.
The mettle of the Congress-led Opposition to expose the lapses and shortcomings of the government as well as to pent up the divisions in the CPM and the occasional spat between the second biggest ally CPI and the major partner will be put on a litmus test. But the UDF has nothing to cheer about politically also, as the Janata Dal (United)-Sharad Yadav faction has severed ties with it and declared to lean Left. Though it will not matter in the Assembly as there are no MLAs for JD(U), its psychological impact on the Opposition and the government’s upper hand will be writ large, when the motion of thanks on the Governor’s address and discussions on the Budget would invariably sashay into political terrains, going by unwritten rules and precedents known to the House.
One group which will be at the centre of attraction will be the Kerala Congress (M), as K M Mani’s team is being wooed by the Left and Right in equal vein in recent times. Mani,who is buying time and waiting for an opportune moment for a right political plunge, is keeping everyone guessing, and the Assembly session can witness occasional sparks set off by the wily veteran.The CPM and CPI are equally engrossed in respective party meetings with a road map up to the party Congress. Captains of the two outfits in the Assembly will have to take calls on that score. The conflicting political line of the two parties, so far, on tying up with the Congress to browbeat the BJP will also come up.
The penchant for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other CPM leaders to eulogize North Korea and China now and then, the uproar created by Congress MLA V T Balram by peeping into the private life of late CPM leader A K Gopalan and also bringing back memories of the ‘Gopalasena’, continuing political killings with the CPM and BJP on either side of the fence, growing number of thefts and brutal murders, a demoralised police and bureaucracy are all choice topics in the drawers to set ground for a fiery match in the upcoming session.The session will end on February 7.
The session will have only 11 business days, including the presentation of a full annual budget by Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac on February 2