Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran on Tuesday said the government and the United Democratic Front (UDF) had engaged in a friendly contest in the Assembly on Monday to hoodwink the public.
At the start of the session, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and his cohorts backed a State government resolution against the Centre to stop the privatisation of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport.
The same day evening, the UDF voted against the government in a flippant no-confidence motion slated to fail from the outset. “The UDF married the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the morning. The marriage ended in divorce by mutual consent in the evening”, he said.
Mr. Surendran said Mr. Chennithala had failed as Opposition Leader. He could not elicit a straight answer from Mr. Vijayan on any issue. The CM defeated Mr. Chennithala by filibuster. He droned on for four hours about the “achievements” of the government. Mr. Chennithala did not press the CM to answer the charges the Opposition had raised.
“The UDF had enough ammunition. It could have easily cornered Mr. Vijayan. But, Mr. Chennithala did not know how to use the arsenal at his disposal. He had no war plan”, Mr. Surendran said.
“How did Swapna Suresh, the second accused in the UAE consulate linked gold smuggling case, become the face of the Kerala government in infrastructure deals with foreign entities? How did Mr. Vijayan’s former Principal Secretary and confidant, M. Sivasankar get embroiled with economic offenders? Did Higher Education Minister K. T. Jaleel violate the provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation (Act) by accepting foreign aid from the UAE? Did Mr. Jaleel abet the smuggling of gold? The CM has to answer these questions”, he said.
Mr. Surendran accused Mr. Vijayan of having played the communal card to win minority community votes ahead of the local body elections. The CM repeatedly attempted to demonise the BJP to instil a sense of insecurity in the electorate. Mr. Vijayan has realised that the BJP was the real Opposition in Kerala and he feared it. The party would launch a State-wide campaign in September to press for Mr Vijayan’s resignation.