Vizhinjam pact: Congress lens on LDF manoeuvres set against Lavalin backdrop

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite the Comptroller and Auditor General’s(CAG) adverse findings on the Vizhinjam seaport project agreement, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy under whose watch the pact was signed has remained unfazed. 

However, the LDF Government’s decision to go in for a judicial probe into it has jolted the Congress - to view it as a strategy of the CPM-led ruling combine to sow the seeds for a political campaign at a time when the developments in the Lavalin case are in the offing.

“ We’ve clear information the LDF is formulating a strategy to start a campaign against the Congress and the UDF based on the CAG Report. Everyone knows the LDF, especially Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is awaiting the Lavalin case outcome. The CM’s statement the government is mulling a judicial probe into the Vizhinjam pact has to be viewed in this context,” KPCC vice president V D Satheesan MLA told Express.

Satheesan took exception to the manner in which Chandy countered the CAG report.
“After going through the CAG report,I’m sure the paragraph-wise counter answers are warranted to blunt many arguments. It has not been done forcefully,” he said.According to Satheesan, even though several PAC(Public Accounts Committee) members were in the state capital when the CAG report was tabled in the Assembly, no meeting was held.

However, KPCC interim president M M Hassan told Express he disagreed with the view the Congress has been going slow in the matter.“Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala,Chandy and myself had discussed the issue. We’ll be discussing the matter again tomorrow(Tuesday),” he said.

Chandy told Express,”Let the agreement and the terms and conditions mooted by the previous V S Achuthanandan Government be subjected to a comparison,to find out which of the two protects the interests of the state.I’m ready to face any probe.”