Foreseeing that the state will witness a political change after the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, CPM politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will not complete his five-year term. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Kodiyeri further said that the LDF would not attempt to topple the government by luring UDF MLAs. “Oommen Chandy will not complete the five-year term because some of the constituents in the UDF are unhappy. They are still continuing in the UDF because as they are not sure whether they would be accommodated in the LDF fold,” said the CPM leader.
“Chandy’s predecessors K Karunakaran and A K Antony could not complete five years in office due to differences within the party,” Kodiyeri said, adding: “the Oommen Chandy government has been abandoned by the people and it has lost its image.” “In the present scenario, the LDF has only 67 MLAs and we cannot make a change in governance. We can do it only if we have at least 71 MLAs. It is the people who elect MLAs and the LDF is trying to create a change in governance through the people,” he added.Dismissing reports of a secret deal with the ruling Congress for discharging CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin graft case, Kodiyeri said that the LDF did not know back-seat driving and there was not any hide-and-seek game. He opined that the CBI special court verdict in the Lavalin case would strengthen the LDF resolve to fight against corruption. “Under the influence of Chandy, the then UDF convener, who cooked up a conspiracy against Pinarayi, the State government ordered a Vigilance probe into the SNC-Lavalin case,” he said.