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V S Achuthanandan shakes hands with Governor R S Gavai after tendering his resignation as Kerala chief minister in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday |
Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan tendered his resignation yesterday after the Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition led by his Communist Party of India (Marxist) lost the state assembly elections.
Speaking to reporters after submitting his resignation to Governor R S Gavai at his official residence Raj Bhavan, the outgoing chief minister warned his successor against inducting tainted people in the new cabinet.
“Let them govern well. But they should keep away the corrupt and exploiters of women. We’ll continue the fight against them,” Achuthanandan.
He was clearing hinting at launching a campaign against Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P K Kunhalikkutty who won the election with the second highest majority.
The Congress-led United Democtaric Front, which has begun informal talks on formation of the next government, is certain to have Kunhalikutty as a minister as well as T M Jacob (Kerala Congress-Jacob).
Achuthanandan has been waging a war against both leaders and early this year launched a re-investigation into the ‘ice-cream parlour sex scandal’ following fresh revelations that Kunhalikutty managed to escape the law in the case by allegedly influencing two judges.
Incidentally, early this month both the now retired judges were questioned by a new police probe team that was appointed following Achuthanandan’s intervention.
Jacob also is facing a corruption case over alleged irregularities in the work of an irrigation project which was cleared by him while he was minister in a previous Congress-led government.
The CPM leadership is likely to make Achuthanandan the leader of the opposition in the assembly since his image as a crusader against corruption is one of the factors that helped the coalition win 68 of the 140 seats and failed to retain power by a whisker.
The Congress Party’s newly-elected legislators will here today the presence of central observers Madhusoothan Mistry and Mohsina Kidwai to elect their leader amid reports that former chief minister Oommen Chandy had expressed unwillingness to take up the mantle as the majority is wafer thin.
The leaders of the UDF are also meeting in the evening to finalise the structure of the cabinet and portfolios.
Analysts said the Congress leadership needed to do a lot of explaining why its strike rate was low compared to its allies in the elections.
The IUML fielded 24 candidates and 20 of them won, three of them with the highest margin in the state. The Kerala Congress (Mani) fielded 15 candidates and nine of them won comfortably, all from the central Kerala where the Congress Party suffered a heavy setback.
On the other hand, only 38 of the 82 candidates that the Congress Party fielded could scrape through, mostly in urban areas, raising many eyebrows. Pre-poll surveys had predicted at least 90 seats for the UDF.
The party leadership was blamed for gifting crucial seats to insignificant partners like the Kerala Congress (Jacob), the Janathipathya Samrakshana Samithy and the Communist Marxist Party which fielded unfit leaders like M V Raghavan and 92-year-old K R Gowri, firebrand leaders of yesteryears who bit the dust this time.