As preparations by political parties for the Lok Sabha elections gather steam, a political row has taken shape in Kottayam over the utilisation of funds by its Parliament member.
The episode unfolded a few weeks ago with Thomas Chazhikadan of the Kerala Congress (M), Lok Sabha member from Kottayam, claiming that he was the first MP from Kerala to achieve 100% utilisation of funds allotted by the Union government. As per a statement, he spent the first instalment of ₹7.02 crore completely on public projects and the next instalment will be received after an audit.
Keen to assert its claim over the Kottayam seat within the Left Democratic Front (LDF), the KC(M) soon embarked on a public campaign by highlighting the feat.
The United Democratic Front (UDF), however, hit back within hours, pointing out that N.K. Premachandran, MP of Kollam, had already begun spending his second instalment of ₹2.5 crore after exhausting the first instalment of ₹7 crore much earlier.
“Even if we go by the estimates put forth by Mr. Chazhikadan, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has spent ₹7.41 crore, which is well above the figures given by the Kottayam MP himself,” said Saji Manjakadamban, chairman of the UDF district committee.
Amidst mounting criticism, Mr. Chazhikadan, however, has stood his ground and asserted that he was the first MP from Kerala to expend the entire funds allotted till May 31, 2023. “The MP who finished second could spent only ₹6.95 crore, followed by another MP who spent ₹6.87 crore,” he said. To back the argument, he shared statistics released by the Programme Implementation and Statistics wing of the Union government.
Poster campaign
While the raging controversy was briefly obscured by the heavy rain that lashed Kottayam last week, it was once again back in the public domain on the back of an announcement of a programme by Ministers and KC(M) chairman Jose K. Mani on Monday to felicitate Mr. Chazhikadan. Enraged by the development, the UDF has now resorted to a massive poster campaign, apparently to “expose the false claims by the LDF.”
As both sides continue to trade recriminations, observers regard the row as a strategy to set the tone for a direct fight between the two leading Kerala Congress factions for the Kottayam seat next year as the Joseph faction stays firm on its demand for the seat and is most likely to field its working chairman P.C. Thomas there.
“It cannot be merely coincidental that the fightback on the issue is led by the Kerala Congress leaders,” pointed out a senior Congress leader in Kottayam.
