CPM Vijayan's issue rocks in Kerala's budget session

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala���s assembly���s budget session that began on Wednesday, which should ordinarily have been devoted to the policy initiatives in the governor���s address, instead witnessed a noisy opposition clamoring for prosecution of CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

Governor R S Gavai���s policy address was drowned in the din of Congress-led United Democratic Front members urging the government to give sanction for prosecution of Mr Vijayan in the Rs 374-crore SNC Lavalin case.

The case pertains to a contract given to the Canadian company when Vijayan was the state power minister, and which allegedly led to significant loss to the state exchequer.

Following vociferous protests from the opposition members, who also carried placards demanding an immediate sanction from the CPM-led state government to prosecute Mr Vijayan, the governor was forced to curtail his address after about 10 minutes.

The timing of the protest is particularly detrimental to Mr Vijayan, considering that he would be attending a politburo meeting in Delhi on Saturday, where the top CPM leadership may consider the ongoing uproar in Kerala over the Lavalin issue.

Mr Vijayan, who is presently leading a Nava Kerala Yatra across the state has been facing the heat of the Lavalin issue all along, including an instance of a chappal being hurled at the yatra at Payyannur in north Kerala.

The apparent fissures in the CPM have been brought into sharper focus by the Lavalin issue, with chief minister V S Achuthanandan being conspicuously absent from the inaugural of the yatra. Following intermittent exchanges between party cadres supporting the Vijayan and Achuthanandan camps, there would be pressure on the politburo to resolve the issue at the earliest.