Thiruvananthapuram, May 22 (IANS) The United Democratic Front government led by Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan has formally buried Kerala’s controversial SilverLine project and is eyeing an alternative broad-gauge high-speed rail corridor, setting the stage for a major political and infrastructure debate in the State.The move assumes significance as it was Satheesan himself, during his tenure as Leader of the Opposition, who spearheaded one of Kerala’s biggest political campaigns against the R…
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New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, May 22 (IANS) A row has broken out in the now beleaguered Kerala unit of the CPI-M after State Secretary M.V. Govindan on Friday brushed aside questions over the continued denial of party membership to Bineesh Kodiyeri.Govindan while talking to the media in Delhi, brushed aside the controversy with a smile, describing it merely as a local issue.He was speaking to reporters ahead of the party’s crucial three-day Central Committee meeting.However, behind the casual …
Thiruvananthapuram, May 21 (IANS) A telling image from Kerala’s Kannur railway station has come to symbolise the dramatic political fall of former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the deep crisis engulfing his Communist Party of India-Marxist after its crushing Assembly election debacle.The photograph, now viral across social media, shows the once all-powerful former Chief Minister quietly waiting for a train alongside CPI-M leader K. K. Ragesh at Kannur station with only a handful of securit…
Thiruvananthapuram, May 21 (IANS) The stage is set for the first major political contest in the newly-constituted Kerala Legislative Assembly, with all three major fronts deciding to field candidates for Friday’s Speaker election even as the Congress-led UDF enjoys a comfortable numerical advantage in the House.While the Treasury Bench has a strength of 102 in the 140 member house, the Left has 35 and the BJP three.Senior Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan is poised for victory as the…
Thiruvananthapuram, May 21 (IANS) The swearing-in of the newly elected members of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly began on Thursday morning, marking the formal start of a House transformed by one of the biggest political upheavals in the state’s recent history.The proceedings commenced at 9 a.m. after Pro Tem Speaker G. Sudhakaran, who was sworn in by Kerala Governor Rajendra V. Arlekar on Wednesday, took his seat in the Assembly.Legislators were called in alphabetical order to take the o…
Thiruvananthapuram, May 20 (IANS) For perhaps the first time in recent Kerala political history, the once tightly controlled inner circles of the CPI(M) have turned into arenas of open anger, frustration and brutal introspection, with former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and party state secretary M.V. Govindan facing an extraordinary wave of criticism across district committee and secretariat meetings following the Left Democratic Front’s crushing Assembly election defeat.What has especially…
Thiruvananthapuram, May 20 (IANS) In a politically loaded moment that underlined Kerala’s dramatic change of guard, veteran legislator and former CPI(M) strongman G. Sudhakaran was on Wednesday sworn in as a legislator of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar at the Lok Bhavan.Present on the occasion were Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan and his cabinet colleagues.Sudhakaran was nominated by the state cabinet on Monday as the Pro-tem Speaker, who was once am…
Thiruvananthapuram, May 19 (IANS) For the first time since the stunning electoral collapse of the Left Democratic Front in the Kerala Assembly elections, former Chief Minister and now Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan has publicly spoken about the defeat, and his carefully worded remarks come at a time when anger and rebellion are steadily building within the Communist Party of India (Marxist) itself. Addressing a party event in his hometown of Kannur on Tuesday, Vijayan said the Left governmen…
Thiruvananthapuram, May 14 (IANS) In a striking reversal of political fortunes, former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was on Thursday officially declared Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition, hours after V. D. Satheesan was selected by his Congress as his successor following the party-led UDF’s emphatic victory in the Assembly elections.The decision to appoint Vijayan as the Opposition leader was taken at the meeting of the Communist Party of India-Marxist state committee, formally marking the b…
New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) The struggle for space within the Left domain is not without antecedents, and beyond Kerala, where, after the recent poll defeat of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), tensions between the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist — or CPI-M — surfaced publicly over the position of Deputy Leader of Opposition in State Assembly. The Communists could attain limited power in India, though enjoying periods of influence intermittently.One such pha…