Congress Working Committee member Ramesh Chennithala has called for the immediate resignation of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Chennithala alleged that personal data of over one crore citizens was leaked for electoral gains. This data included details of state government employees, welfare pensioners, entrepreneurs, and women under a safety scheme, shared without consent.
He presented documents, including letters from the Chief Minister’s Office, indicating that sensitive data from government databases was shared with private agencies. Chennithala claimed that nearly one crore individuals received WhatsApp messages using this data. He criticized the act as illegal and a violation of privacy rights.
Chennithala highlighted that the data transfer breached the Supreme Court’s 2017 privacy judgment and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. He drew parallels to a previous data sharing controversy during the Covid period, alleging a pattern of mishandling citizen data for political motives.
The Congress leader raised concerns about potential cyber fraud and misuse due to the data exposure, especially affecting vulnerable groups. He urged for a thorough investigation and legal action against those responsible. The Chief Minister’s Office has not yet responded to these allegations, setting the stage for heightened political tensions ahead of the Assembly elections.
