In a huge embarrassment to Kerala’s ten-month-old CPI(M)-led lDF Government, State Transport Minister AK Saseendran of the NCP resigned from his position on Sunday after allegations of misconduct with an unidentified woman surfaced against him.
Saseendran’s resignation came after a newly launched Malayalam TV news channel on Monday morning telecast an audio clip, which it claimed was the recording of a conversation between him and a woman, in which he was heard making sexually explicit comments. The NCP leader is the second Minister to quit the lDF Government since it assumed charge in May last.
The woman, with whom Saseendran was having the lewd conversation as per the channel’s claim, had reportedly approached him for some favours. However, no woman has made any complaint against Saseendran, who has got trapped in the scandal just when the State has been witnessing a spurt in incidents of sexual assault against women and children.
Announcing his decision to resign from the Cabinet in Kozhikode on Sunday afternoon, 71-year-old Saseendran, a member of the NCP national working committee, insisted that he had done nothing wrong. However, he did not offer a clear reply when newsmen repeatedly asked him whether the voice on the controversial audio clip was his.
“I am convinced that it would be inappropriate for me to continue as Minister in this context,” he said. “But my resignation is in no way an admission of guilt. I am resigning because I have to uphold the integrity of my party and the lDF coalition,” Saseendran, five-time MlA and lone Minister from the NCP in the lDF Government, said. NCP has two MlAs in the Kerala Assembly.
“I welcome any kind of investigation. I am not entering into the merits of the matter now. What is important to me at this point is the political content. I have to uphold the political morality of my party and the lDF. There has to be a probe. As far as I am concerned, it is inappropriate for me to continue as Minister when a probe is on,” he said.
The Congress, the Opposition UDF it leads and the BJP raised the demand for the resignation of Saseendran and a probe into the allegation immediately after the channel telecast the audio recording. “The situation in the left-ruled State is such that women and children can’t approach even Ministers with confidence,” said Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.
Saseendran announced his resignation after Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed the issue involving him as “serious”. However, the NCP leader claimed that he was resigning on his own and not under pressure from the Chief Minister. “The allegation against me is over something about which I have no knowledge,” he reiterated.
The NCP leadership made it clear that the party was in no hurry to fill the vacancy in the Cabinet created by Saseendran’s resignation. “There will be action (against Saseendran) if the allegation is proven true. He can return (to the Cabinet) if it is found false,” said a top NCP leader. Saseendran is the third lDF minister to resign over sex-related charges in Kerala’s history.
The lDF has always taken a strong stand on issues related to sex scandals. PJ Joseph of the then Kerala Congress(J) had resigned in 2006 over the charge that he had tried to molest a woman on board an aircraft and BSP leader Neelalohithadasan Nadar, then in the Janata Dal (S), was forced to resign in 2000 over an alleged attempt to outrage the modest of a woman IAS official.