Thiruvananthapuram: In the wake of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan disowning his finance minister over his criticism of the vigilance raid on KSFE, Thomas Isaac has lost all moral authority to continue in office, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said on Tuesday
“The statement from the chief minister has made it clear that he has lost all trust in the finance minister,” said Chennithala.
Even the party has distanced itself from Isaac. “How can a minister continue in government when the chief minister and his party has lost all respect and trust in him,’’ he asked.
Isaac has been highly critical of investigations at KSFE branches across the state. Along with the CM, his cabinet colleagues have also washed their hands of Isaac on this issue. This means that not just the CM and the party, even his cabinet colleagues have lost trust in Isaac, the Congress leader said.
The FM had slammed the raids conducted without his knowledge. Alleging a high-level conspiracy behind the action, Isaac went to the extent of stating that it was carried out to help private players. He even termed the raid as “madness” on the part of vigilance, which comes under the home department headed by the CM.
The CM, however, said the raids were based on a classified report about widespread discrepancies and irregularities at the Kerala-government-owned chit fund company. “This means that the raids were conducted with the knowledge of the chief minister and he is also involved in the conspiracy as alleged by Isaac,” the opposition leader said.
Ministers G Sudhakaran, E P Jayarajan and Kadakampally Surendran have rallied behind Vijayan on the issue.