THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UDF has decided to boycott the swearing-in ceremony of CPM leader E P Jayarajan scheduled for 10 am on Tuesday at the Raj Bhavan. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala told reporters on Monday the re-entry of Jayarajan into the Cabinet was unethical and unscrupulous. “Just because the Vigilance absolved him of the corruption case does not mean he received a clean chit,” he said, adding Jacob Thomas was removed as Vigilance director for not giving clean chit to Jayarajan.
He also lashed out at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for sitting through an entire day at the AKG Centre in the CPM secretariat to finalise Jayarajan’s re-entry even while flood and related destruction were ravaging the state. He also took pot-shots at CPI for taking the Chief Whip position, saying when UDF had done it, the Left party had opposed it saying it would be an unnecessary burden on the exchequer.
“Now, it has itself committed for a Chief Whip post. This exposes CPI’s double standards and shows it will go to any extent for attaining power,” Chennithala said.
He also said the previous UDF regime had 25 Cabinet ministers. “Now with LDF also this is the same, as in addition to 20 ministers, it has one Speaker, one deputy speaker and now a Chief Whip. Besides, V S Achuthanandan is the Administrative Reforms Committee chairman, while R Balakrishna Pillai is the Forward Caste Commission chairman. So, the alliance which came to power by talking about austerity and cutting costs, has the same Cabinet numbers as the UDF did,” he said.“The Left Front is cheating the people,” he said.