In a state where politics and instability go together, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is confident of achieving a milestone.
In May, Chandy's Congress-led coalition government will begin its last of five years in office. If Chandy is able to breast the five-year tape, he will become only the second Congress chief minister after K. Karunakaran (1982-87) to complete a full term in office.
He will also be the fifth chief minister of Kerala to have gone the distance.But as things stand today, there is no end to the uncertainties that plague the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). Chandy is, however, not worried.In the Kerala assembly, the treasury benches have 73 members while the Left opposition commands 66 seats. One seat is vacant following the demise of Speaker G. Karthikeyan last month.In the almost four years of Chandy's rule, the government has suffered heartbreaks on a few occasions.It came under intense fire when a whistle-blower bar owner, Biju Ramesh, last year accused Finance Minister K.M. Mani of taking Rs.1 crore to reopen all the bars closed in the state.
Since then, the Left has been up in arms demanding Mani's resignation.And when the bar bribery case was attracting headlines, early this week new stories of another case - the "solar scam" - resurfaced after a gap of two years.The main actor in this episode is a woman who is out on bail in the case in which she and a live-in partner have been accused of duping investors by promising them solar panels.A letter that surfaced this week names leading politicians and ruling coalition legislators as well as a prominent movie star of sexually exploiting the woman.The letter was leaked out at a time when a war is raging within the Congress-led UDF coalition.In the process, the government's chief whip, P.C. George, was booted out after a long feud with his party chairman and Finance Minister Mani reached a point of no return.
To complicate matters for the government, the name of Mani's son and a Lok Sabha member, Jose K. Mani, also figured in the leaked letter.Marxist leader and former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who loses no time in hitting out at Chandy, roared that the government was not just corrupt but an immoral one."Even the worst of the 'A' certified films would have a better tale to tell than this Chandy government and some of its legislators," he told the media."The situation is such that families find it difficult to switch on TV channels as only stories of sleaze is heard about this government," added the leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.Chandy, eager to complete five years in office, hit back."No state government has done as much work as this one," he said. "Just see the efforts we are putting in to bring back Keralites from Yemen."And to make sure what he meant, he pointed out that the "solar scam" existed even during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when the Congress-led UDF came on top."At that time too, the solar scam was there. The people are watching what is going on. I am not worried," added Chandy.