Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is understood to have given a piece of his mind to Transport Minister Thomas Chandy about his outburst at the public meeting at Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha in connection with the Janajagratha Yatra led by CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran on Tuesday.
In a brief exchange, the Chief Minister reportedly asked Mr. Chandy whether he was ‘digging his own grave’. The incident took place shortly after the weekly Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday morning. Mr. Chandy’s open challenge to the Opposition to prove the backwater reclamation had irked the CPI State secretary, but he had responded to it in measured terms, simply stating that the LDF’s Janajagratha Yatra had not been conceived as one to challenge the alliance’s opponents or to prove any point.
Responding to reporters’ queries on the subject, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the matter should rest since Mr. Rajendran had responded to Mr. Chandy’s outburst in appropriate terms. The two party secretaries are in touch with each other on key issues and Mr. Balakrishnan’s response is clearly the outcome of exchange of notes between the two sides.
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The LDF yatras, led by Mr. Balakrishnan and Mr. Rajendran, will conclude in Kochi on Friday. The two parties are likely to discuss the issue in their party forums only after conclusion of the yatra. The CPI(M) State secretariat is expected to meet on Monday and may well take up the issue.