Thiruvananthapuram: The Nationalist Congress Party faced more ignominy in Kerala as its minister Thomas Chandy was forced to hand over his resignation to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday following land-grabbing allegations against him. He is the second NCP minister to resign.
The move followed a series of allegations against him, primarily over encroaching land in Alappuzha district for a tourism resort owned by the minister and illegally land-filling and converting paddy land for non-farm use.
“The resignation letter has been received, and it has been forwarded to the state governor. Other things can be discussed later”, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media shortly after Chandy handed over his resignation.
Pressure had been mounting for Chandy’s resignation before two developments this week forced the minister to step down. On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court questioned how a minister could file a petition against his own government, while considering Chandy’s petition against the report submitted by the Alappuzha district collector that pointed out his land rule violations.
The second incident was the decision of the Communist Party of India to boycott the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, objecting to Thomas Chandy’s presence. This was an unprecedented move, which finally forced the minister to quit.
Chandy becomes the third minister to quit from the Left Democratic Front ministry, which came to power only 18 months ago, and is the second NCP minister forced to resign.
The first casualty in the Pinarayi Vijayan ministry was EP Jayarajan, who resigned after allegations of nepotism. He was followed by Thomas Chandy’s NCP colleague, AK Saseendran, who quit after being exposed of having sexually-explicit telephone conversation with a woman. Chandy completes a hat-trick of resignations.
After his resignation, Chandy told a local television channel that the chief minister had assured him that Saseendran or Chandy himself could come back to the ministry once they were absolved by the court of the charges against them.
