Thiruvananthapuram: The leadership meeting of the Janata Dal (Secular) party has decided that its MLA and former minister Jose Thettayil need not resign. The MLA was caught in a controversy after a woman revealed video clips to back her claim that the MLA and his son had abused her. She also claimed the family had reneged on a promise to marry the MLA’s son to her.

The Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) decided to go along with the Janata Dal(S) decision and will not press for Thettayil’s resignation. The LDF had earlier left the decision to the discretion of the Janata Dal(S).

The party has also decided to give political and legal support to Thettayil to fight the allegation. Party chief Mathew T. Thomas had also thrown his weight behind Thettayil. The Janata Dal(S) party committee was of the opinion that similar allegations had earlier been made against other political leaders and none had resigned. Therefore, Thettayil need not resign, the party decided. The party also took into account Thettayil’s statement that an investigation was under way into the allegation and that he was confident of proving it wrong.

The video purportedly showing Thettayil with the woman has been watched by thousands on YouTube. Different clippings of the video were watched by nearly 100,000 people within hours of the video being uploaded.

The Thettayil incident has dented Opposition efforts to turn the heat on chief minister Oommen Chandy, after two of his office staff had to be removed from duties following allegations that they had connived with the fraudulent operations of a solar power company. The key officials of Team Solar, which is accused of having duped several persons to the tune of millions of rupees, Biju Radhakrishnan and Sarita S. Nair are both in police custody. They are believed to have close links to two staff members of the chief minister’s office, Tenny Joppan and Salim Raj.

The Kerala Students’ Union has vowed to stop Thettayil on the streets if he refuses to resign his post as MLA.