The Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala is sure to come under heavy fire from the CPI(M)-led lDF Opposition during the 39-day Monsoon Session of the State Assembly that begins on Monday on various issues while the ruling side will have to go on the back foot in facing these attacks as the Congress and the ruling coalition are being dogged by intense internal feuds.
The Opposition has decided to attack the Government over issues like the recurring deaths of adivasi children due to malnutrition in Attappadi in Palakkad district, an unprecedented spread of dengue and other viral fevers which have already claimed dozens of lives and the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. The Session will end on July 18.
“While all this is happening, the State administration has come to a standstill as the main ruling party, Congress, has no time to rule the State because its entire energy is focused on the group war between its State chief Ramesh Chennithala and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy over the latter’s refusal to make the former Home Minister,” said a senior CPI(M) leader.
“The UDF itself is in no position to rule the State as it is going through several feuds. One party wants its MlA re-inducted into the Cabinet while a section in another party wants action against the Government Chief Whip. Two others are searching for an excuse to quit the UDF. How can they get time to look into people’s affairs after all these warsIJ” asked the lDF leader.
Observers point out that the Opposition’s allegations are not entirely baseless. “At no time in the recent past, Kerala has seen feuds in political parties affecting the State administration this badly. This is unavoidable when the Chief Minister himself is leading group wars in his party taking time off his official duties,” said senior journalist S Rajeev.
One of the main issues over which the Opposition would grill the Government is the outbreak of dengue and other viral fevers in several districts simultaneously hitting a minimum of over a million people. The fever outbreak had started even before the start of the monsoon rains on June 1 but the Health Department has not been able to take steps to effectively control it.
Health Minister V Sivakumar of the Congress is claiming to have taken several measures like opening evening consultation at outpatient sections in the Government medical colleges and engaging additional doctors and other personnel to address the problem but the fact remains that the Government does not even have a clear idea as to how many have been hit by fevers.
The Government will try to ward off the Opposition blows by diverting the discussions to the issue of development in which it claims to have done well. But observers say that the confidence derived from the opening of work on the Kochi Metro and accordance of administrative sanction to two monorail projects would not be enough to face the Opposition barrage.
The biggest problem the Congress is facing in this session is that its ‘I’ group led by Chennithala, whom the Chief Minister’s ‘A’ group has refused to make the Home Minister, is unlikely to come forward to defend the Government. The ‘I’ group has already made it clear that the party under State president Chennithala is not obliged to protect the Government.
Also, the ruling side cannot hope this time to attack the Opposition by stressing on the internal problems of the CPI(M) over its official leadership’s move to remove VS Achuthanandan from the post of the Opposition leader in the Assembly. However, it would try to find some relief by bringing up the issue of the recent expulsion of three of his closest aides from the party.
