The position of Kerala’s Transport Minister Thomas Chandy of the NCP, already facing allegations of encroaching lake areas and misuse of public funds, has become further untenable as protests demanding his resignation intensified after fresh charges of hiding information on assets from the Election Commission came up while the BJP accused him of usurping several hectares of land belonging to a temple body.
Chandy is also facing intense Opposition from within the Kerala NCP which is said to be on the verge of a split with a major section demanding action against him for his alleged authoritarian attitude. The party’s central leadership, standing solidly behind Chandy, has dissolved the State unit of its youth wing and expelled its president for rebelling against him.
Amid raging protests against Chandy, a billionaire businessman, over alleged encroachment of lake and misuse of public funds, State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan on Friday accused him of illegally keeping in his possession 34 acres of land belonging to the temple body, Mathoor Devaswom.
“Chandy is keeping in his possession 34 acres of land connected to a temple in Nedumudi (in Alappuzha district) belonging to the Mathoor Devaswom. Though there is a court order against this, he is not prepared to give it up. How can he do thisIJ There should be a thorough probe over all the allegations that have been leveled against him,” Kummanam said.
BJP activists took out a protest march towards lake Palace, a sprawling tourist resort owned by Chandy on the banks of the Vembanad lake in Alappuzha demanding his resignation and a probe against him. Police blocked the march midway triggering tension.
The Youth Congress had taken out a march to lake Palace Resort the other day.
Chandy, NCP’s MlA from Kuttanad, Kerala’s Rice Bowl in Alappuzha district, had come under a scathing attack from the Congress-led Opposition UDF in the State Assembly the other day over the alleged encroachment of a large area of the Vembanad lake adjacent to his resort and construction of a road leading to it by misusing public funds.
Chandy was inducted into the lDF Cabinet on April 1, five days after his senior party colleague AK Saseendran resigned as Transports minister following a sexual harassment scandal connected to a honey-trap sting operation mounted by a TV channel. Saseendran and Chandy are the only MlAs of the NCP, a minor constituent of the CPI(M)-led ruling lDF.
A more serious charge of hiding vital information regarding his assets from the Election Commission came up against him on Friday on the basis of a statement he had made in the Assembly on Thursday. legal experts said that the businessman-politician could be disqualified as MlA and face prosecution proceedings if the allegations were true.
While responding to the Opposition’s onslaught on him over the alleged lake encroachment, Chandy had told the Assembly on Thursday, “The only crime I have committed is to spend some Rs 150 crore that I had earned through the hard work of 40 years in the deserts (in Kuwait) for establishing lake Palace Resort.”
However, in the affidavit he had submitted to the Election Commission during the last Assembly election, there was no mention of such a huge asset base and he had reportedly quoted only Rs 92 crore as the worth of his assets. He had also told the EC that he owned no commercial complex but lake Palace resort alone has 13 buildings in it under his ownership.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, a Politbureau member of the CPI(M), is also drawing flak over the issue for the alleged enthusiasm he had shown in the Assembly on Thursday for the defence he mounted for the Transport Minister. Pinarayi had argued in the House that Chandy’s resort had committed no lake encroachment.
Meanwhile, the central leadership of the NCP’s youth wing, the Nationalist Youth Congress, on Friday reportedly dissolved its Kerala unit and its chief Mujeeb Rahman was expelled from the party for demanding action against Chandy and his resignation. Mujeeb had the other day indirectly accused Chandy of conspiring to trap Saseendran in the sexual harassment scandal.