THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Leader of opposition V D Satheesan will not attend the inaugural function of the Vizhinjam Seaport on May 2. His office alleged that the LDF government failed to ensure his presence in the inaugural function.
However, the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan dismissed the allegation and clarified that Satheesan’s name was included in the list submitted by the state government to the Prime Minister’s Office.
“The final decision on the list of attendees was taken by the PMO. The state government had only submitted the proposals. The invitation was sent after the PMO gave the final list to the state government. The invitation was extended to all leaders from the Chief Minister’s Office simultaneously,” he said.
Congress has decided to limit the presence of Opposition in the inaugural function to its Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and Vizhinjam MLA M Vincent.
Though the state government had not sent invitations to political leaders, some channel reports on Tuesday said that the leader of opposition was not in the list though Tharoor and Vincent’s name were included. At a press conference, M Vincent alleged that Satheesan was excluded from the function. However, when TNIE contacted Vincent, he said he has also not received the invitation letter, but was told by some sources that Satheesan’s name was not in the list. Meanwhile, Port Minister V N Vasavan told TNIE that the invitations to the leader of Opposition, Tharoor and Vincent were sent through a messenger in the morning after the PMO’s approval.
The opposition leader did not respond to repeated efforts to get his response. Satheesan’s office said that the leader of Opposition was invited in a letter head of the port minister and his role at the function was not specified. Satheesan will participate in the UDF coordination meeting to be held on May 2 in Kozhikode.
Meanwhile, there is a differing view in the Congress and UDF against Satheesan’s decision to opt out of the programme. Tharoor is the only Congress leader who had visited the port premises after the CM’s visit.
Meanwhile CM Pinarayi dismissed reports that BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s name was sent by the state government. “We had included only the names of people’s representatives in the state’s list. It was in the list approved by the PMO that those names were included. We had not included the names of the LDF convener or the secretaries of the CPM or CPI in the list,” he said.