The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) opposition would lay siege to the government secretariat on October 18 to press for the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The meeting, chaired by UDF convenor M. M. Hassan, reportedly resolved to cast Mr. Vijayan at the centre of its looming anti-government agitations in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
It seeks to wring political advantage out of the high-profile scandals dogging Mr. Vijayan, his office and his family.
The UDF sensed a clear path to victory in the impending elections, given its good showing in the Puthuppally bypoll.
The opposition seems poised to change gear into an aggressively anti-government mode, with a sharp focus on the perceived wrongdoings, conflicts of interests and failures of the top political executive.
For one, the opposition seemed intent to capitalise on “entrenched corruption” in CPI(M) controlled cooperative Banks and ongoing anti-money laundering probes against party leaders.
It sensed that corruption scandals invariably resonated among voters and would catalyse the anti-incumbent sentiment that proved a windfall for the opposition in Puthuppally.
Mr. Hassan demanded a probe into Mr. Vijayan and Kerala Congress (B) legislator K.B.Ganesh Kumar, MLA, for allegedly conspiring to defame late Chief Minister Oommen Chandy ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls to disadvantage the Congress alliance at the hustings.
The previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into imputations of sexual exploitation raised against Chandy and other Congress leaders by a financial fraud case suspect prosecuted by the UDF government in 2013.
The CBI found the accusations baseless in 2023. The agency also purportedly filed a report flagging an entrenched political plot involving ruling front politicians and some middlemen to defame Chandy.
The UDF seemed undeterred that the alleged plot acquired a double edge on Wednesday. Two leading players in the sordid political drama insinuated in separate press conferences in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi that politicians across the aisle sought to profit from Chandy’s predicted political undoing.
Mr. Hassan warned the government of aggressive street agitations if it failed to inquire about the 2021 Assembly election “government conspiracy” to spite Chandy and other Congress leaders. He demanded the resignation of Mr. Vijayan.
The UDF decided to take its campaign to the neighbourhood level. Congress workers would knock on doors and organise marches at the local body level to press their case against the government from October 12 onwards.
