A “googly” bowled by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday morning shocked the Congress-led UDF and they staged a walk out from the House, the reason for which the latter is reluctant to explain.
When the House commenced sitting on the first day of the session, the Congress MLA Sunny Joseph submitted an adjournment notice seeking discussion on the statement made by the Chief Minister that Malappuram topped the table in the seizure of smuggled gold and hawala money and his subsequent retraction following the resentment among the Muslim community.
The decision of the Speaker A N Shamseer to grant permission for a discussion on the adjournment notice took the Opposition by surprise as they were hoping that the government would not allow the same. The submission of adjournment notice and its refusal followed by the walk out by Opposition benches is a routine affair in the Kerala legislative assembly. But Monday’s decision by the Speaker literally shocked the Opposition and they trooped into the podium of the former with banners and flags.
Despite the Speaker’s plea to go back to their seats, the Opposition members stayed put in front of the podium and shouted slogans against the LDF Government. Chief Minister Pinarayi had unleashed a verbal attack on Leader of the Opposition V D Satheeshan and the latter turned furious over certain comments made by the former.
“Pinarayi Vijayan is trying to become Narendra Modi. God alone would be able to save the people from him,” charged Satheeshan to which the chief minister retorted that one has to be careful in the words used in the Legislative Assembly. What surprised political Kerala was the action of the Opposition in walking out of the House despite the Chair agreeing to the adjournment notice served by the, “This is the first time in the history of Kerala the movers of adjournment notice running away from the battlefield without furnishing a reason for their action,” P Rajeeve, minister for industry and a strong contender for the chair of the Chief Minister told reporters.
