NCP leader Thomas Chandy, accused of land and lake encroachment and misuse of public funds, resigned as Kerala’s Transports Minister on Wednesday following the collapse of all his strategies to remain in power post High Court strictures, on Tuesday, for challenging own Government with a petition and the CPI’s uncompromising stand against retaining tainted persons in the CPI(M)-led lDF Cabinet.
Suspense-charged dramatic developments through the past three months over the charges against Chandy came to an end at 12.40 pm on Wednesday with State NCP president TP Peethambaran handing over Chandy’s letter of resignation to Marxist CM Pinarayi Vijayan in the State capital, Thiruvananthapuram, after a morning of hectic political activities.
“I have received Chandy’s resignation and have forwarded it to the Governor,” Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told media early Wednesday afternoon, exactly two hours after he refused to confirm Chandy’s decision to quit by saying, “They (NCP leaders) have promised to inform me after talking to their central leadership.”
Chandy lost all his political tools to remain in power following Tuesday’s scathing attack against him by the High Court which rapped him for breaking the code of collective responsibility of the Cabinet by challenging own Government with a petition against an official report that indicted him for encroachments and violation of laws and rules.
The NCP leader was left with no option but to quit also after the CM, who had been defending him all the way using the excuse of “coalition dharma”, advised him on Wednesday morning that it would be only appropriate for him to resign in the context of the court’s negative observations.
Complicating the situation for him, the four Ministers of the CPI, second biggest lDF partner, boycotted a Cabinet meeting after informing the Chief Minister they resorted to the extraordinary step because their political integrity did not allow them to participate in it when the tainted NCP leader was present.
In an allegedly biased move, the CM, facing the charge of going out of his way to protect Chandy, justified Chandy’s presence at the Cabinet meeting and blasted the CPI for boycotting it. “It is an extremely extraordinary situation. This should not have happened,” Pinarayi said just two hours before Chandy’s resignation.
After quitting, Chandy, a businessman-politician, told newsmen that there was no situation that warranted his resignation and that he had resigned only because the Chief Minister was embarrassed by the CPI’s conduct. However, he claimed that Pinarayi had promised to return the Transport Portfolio to him once he proved his innocence.
Opposition parties and a section within the lDF had been demanding his resignation ever since August 11, the day the charges against him of land and lake encroachment, illegal land-filling of paddy fields and wetlands and misuse of public funds for construction for the sake of his tourism facility in Alappuzha first came up.
Alappuzha District Collector TV Anupama had, in her report to the Government, confirmed the charges against Chandy and CPI’s Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan recommended criminal proceedings against him on the basis of this, triggering a standoff between the NCP and CPI. The national NCP leadership extended full support to Chandy.
As the noose tightened for him with all options running out, Chandy filed a petition in the High Court challenging Anupama’s report which in the court’s view amounted to a Minister challenging his own Government and thus breaching the code of collective responsibility which was equivalent to violation of the Constitution.
The court’s strictures closed all avenues of survival for Chandy as minister but he rejected its offer to allow him to withdraw the petition. Congress MP Vivek Tankha, who appeared for Chandy by enraging the State party unit which had been agitating against Chandy, advised him to approach the Supreme Court for getting the strictures removed.
“We are not giving up our claim for the position in the Cabinet,” Chandy said. The Chief Minister will keep the Transport Portfolio for the time being as the only other NCP MlA, AK Saseendran, who had resigned in March as Transport minister following a sex scandal paving the way for Chandy’s entry into the Cabinet, is facing a probe over the scandal.