Ahead of the full-fledged UDF meet slated for Thursday, the state witnessed dramatic turn of events on Tuesday with lone MLA of minor ally Kerala Congress (B) K B Ganesh Kumar disclosing that he had quit his Assembly membership and sent a letter to the party chairman R Balakrishna Pillai.
However, Pillai maintained that his son’s statement was a blatant lie and he has not received any letter.
Aides of Ganesh had leaked the news that he had putin his papers.
A letter addressed to the Speaker stat ing his resignat ion as Pathanapuram MLA was also forwarded to Pillai. Ganesh was learnt to be unhappy over the UDF’s unwillingness to give him a ministerial berth again, especially after Pillai was bestowed with a Cabinetranked chairmanship of the newlyformed Forward Castes’ Development Corporation.
“How can he resign without the party’s knowledge?” was the terse response of Pillai.
It was cooked up by a few, he claimed, even when the media pointed out that his son had affirmed about the resignation earlier in the day and also said the party chairman would comment upon it. “The people of Pathanapuram are with me. The media had unleashed a witch hunt against me,” he said.
Ganesh was forced to quit his ministership on April 1 after being caught in a row over domestic violence alleged by his wife. Though the rift was settled through an out-ofcourt agreement and the couple parted ways, Ganesh was not able to recoup his clout and goodwill within the front. Pillai said that Ganesh had told him three weeks ago that the UDF was cheating him.
“He said that the word given to him on ministership once the legal cases are cleared was not being kept,” said Pillai, and added that that nothing about resigning the MLA post was given as a letter.
Pillai had also been consistent in his demand that the party’s lone MLA should be made a minister again. He had even issued an ultimatum to the UDF leadership, setting a deadline of October 10 to come up with a positive response. Political observers view Ganesh’s resignation as a well-enacted drama by the father-son duo. The state committee meet of KC(B) is scheduled here on Wednesday from 10 am. It will discuss the recent issues in the party.