THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Opposition making a U-turn from its professed stand to not accept the annual budget presentation of Finance Minister K M Mani or take part in the Discussions on the Demand for Grants, but boycotting the reply speech of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the end. An expected onslaught against the government by the Left over the reported decision of the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau to not proceed against the Finance Minister with a chargesheet in the bar bribery case.
And the treasury benches mercilessly attacking CPM veteran and Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan for his ‘lowly and mimic uttering’, while none of his colleagues in the LDF coming to his rescue. When the Assembly was in session on Monday on a re-scheduled calendar, Aruvikkara bypoll and respective claims on its outcome also filled the gaps.
The Opposition posted a goal while Home minister Ramesh Chennithala was valiantly defending the government stand to not interfere in the investigation of the bar bribery case and justifying the decision of VACB Director Vinson M Paul to seek the opinion from legal luminaries outside the state.
The minister fell into the trap laid by A K Balan (CPM) when the latter raised a recent FB post of Ramesh, in which he had maintained that there was lot of pressure on him but would not yield to it. However, Ramesh stoutly denied it and said that neither the chief minister nor him had interfered in the path of a free and fair probe.
The ruling front was caught by surprise when the Left members came back after a walkout to participate in the discussions on the budget, albeit reiterating that they had not approved the budget.
Initiating an onslaught, E P Jayarajan (CPM) said that they had decided to speak out for the people, and listed a slew of charges capping it with the solar and the bar issues.
He also tried to curry favour with the IUML why the party was not trying to correct the Congress. Sunny Joseph (Cong) and K N A Khader (IUML) gave a dignified tit-for-tat for the Opposition and wondered why the CPM members were stooping to such a low in their behaviour in the Assembly.
Achuthanandan, who had quoted verses from the Holy Bible to pounce on Mani, was referred to as ‘pastor VS’ by K N A Khhader. When the turn of P C Vishnunath (Cong) came, it was a free-wheeling hit against the CPM leader and the provoked Achuthanandan targeted the youth MLA as one of Saritha’s men in his speech.
A K Balan (CPM) kept off the tempo of the Opposition attack, but it didn’t weigh much when Joseph Vazhackan (Cong) spoke after him, as the latter exposed the political fallacies of the CPM. G Sudhakaran, as usual, was at his erudite and scholarly best and underscored that the chief minister’s political white clothes had fallen .
In the hands of P K Basheer (IUML), the Opposition leader was made to squirm, as he referred to the Aruvikkara bypoll where VS was made a star campaigner but asked him whether he was any committee of the CPM and the party could produce a joint photograph of VS, Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in the poll scene.