The Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongman Pinarayi Vijayan, 72, will be sworn in as Kerala Chief Minister on Wednesday.
The party-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) yesterday selected Vijayan to head the Kerala government for the next five years.
The choice comes against the wishes of V S Achuthanandan, 92, the former chief minister who was the star campaigner of the alliance in this week’s elections. “The party has unanimously elected Vijayan as leader of the legislature party,” CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters here in the presence of Achuthanandan.
“Like Fidel Castro in Cuba, comrade Achuthanandan will continue to advise, guide and inspire (the government),” Yechury stressed.
There was widespread speculation that Achuthanandan who led the electioneering, addressing scores of rallies across the state, would also throw his hat in the ring for the top job. He had expressed his desire during the electioneering and after the election results were declared.
But Yechury, while acknowledging Achuthanandan’s role in the “historic win”, cited “age and physical limitations” of the “war horse” for not assigning the top job to him.
“Achuthanandan has led the LDF campaign from the front from the beginning,” he said. “The only parallel is comrade Fidel Castro. He’s the Fidel Castro of the Kerala revolutionary movement.”
Achuthanandan who looked dejected did not respond to questions from the reporters, whom he is likely to meet today.
The party reportedly offered him the position of LDF chairperson with a cabinet rank, as Sonia Gandhi was during the United Progressive Alliance dispensation in New Delhi, but he rejected the offer.
Vijayan, a member of the party’s top decision-making body, the politburo, studied economics at Brennen College in his hometown of Thalassery where he took the political plunge in mid-sixties. He had worked as a handloom weaver for a year before entering the college.
Vijayan was first elected to the Assembly in 1970 from Koothuparamba, where he repeated his win in 1977 and 1991 and 1996 from Payyanur.
In 2007, he and Achuthanandan were suspended from the politburo for their public remarks against each other. Though he was reinstated later, Achuthanandan continued to be kept out.
As a minister, Vijayan proved his mettle as an efficient administrator and almost doubled the state’s captive power generation capacity in two years, though a renovation contract awarded to a Canadian energy major led to the biggest corruption scandal in the state.
Awaiting him is nearly a dozen big-ticket projects, including an airport, seaport, metros, waterways and highways that his predecessor Oommen Chandy has personally been monitoring.
Chandy wished his successor would continue the projects with equal vigour. “You should also extend all support to them (the new government),” he told reporters. “But not the way you supported me,” he quipped, hinting at the various controversies the media blew out of proportion without seeking his version.
Chandy blamed “false propaganda” against his government and the failure of his party apparatus to take his government’s achievements to the people for the poll debacle.