The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) has decided to induct Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Thomas Chandy in the Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet in place of A.K. Saseendran, who resigned on March 26 falling victim to a phone trap set by the Mangalam TV channel.
The LDF State committee held a hurried meeting here on Friday to take a call on the NCP demand for Mr. Chandy’s induction and took barely 10 minutes to arrive at a decision. Mr. Chandy, who represents the Kuttanad Assembly constituency in Alappuzha district, would be sworn in at Raj Bhavan here at 4 p.m. on Saturday and given the Transport portfolio held by Mr. Saseendran.
The NCP national leadership’s decision to replace Mr. Saseendran with Mr. Chandy was communicated to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by NCP State president Uzhavoor Vijayan in the morning.
The two leaders also discussed the possibility of bringing back Mr. Saseendran in the light of the channel’s open admission that it had erred in airing the phone trap story about sexually explicit conversation by the former Minister.
However, the matter was not taken further given Mr. Saseendran’s declaration that he did not wish to return to the Cabinet. Mr. Vijayan, later, called on CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and formally staked claim to the Cabinet berth.
Mr. Chandy’s entry into the Cabinet had become a formality on Thursday with CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury stating that it was the prerogative of the NCP to decide who should be the party’s nominee in the LDF Cabinet. His statement had come following discussions that NCP president Sharad Pawar had had with him earlier.
Talking to reporters after the LDF State committee meeting, Mr. Chandy said he had never seen any obstacle to his becoming the Minister.
