Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is not fit to continue as the Home Minister of the state, Nilambur MLA PV Anvar said in a press conference on Thursday. Communist party workers and minorities are facing a witchhunt in Kerala, the Left-backed Indpendent MLA added.
Opening a warfront against Pinarayi Vijayan, who, according to the MLA, was a fatherly figure to him, Anvar said the CM is ignorant about the realities on the ground. While many LDF candidates including himself cashed in on the popularity of Pinarayi Vijayan among the voters during the 2021 Assembly polls, the scenario has changed, Anvar said. CM Vijayan's graph has drastically fallen among the public and the senior leader is hated by a section of communist cadres and the general public, he added.
The Kerala Chief Minister used to be a sun who shined bright. Today that sun has become exhausted. There exists a nexus of top leaders across political lines in Kerala. They unite and work jointly in certain matters like cases against them. This is a major challenge faced by the state today, Anvar said.
From scathing remarks about CM's political secretary P Sasi to ADGP Ajith Kumar to remarks about cabinet minister P A Muhammad Riyas, here are five other things PV Anvar MLA said during his explosive press conference on Thursday evening:
1. Communist workers and local leaders are unable to take people's matters to police stations. If you reveal you are a communist party worker, the cops may give you two extra slaps. This is the situation in Kerala today. The CM's political secretary (P Sasi) is the reason for this. Ajith Kumar writes down things and hands it over to the CM. He don't know anything other than this.
2. I am challenging the Chief Minister to task a sitting judge to investigate the allegations I have raised. He and the party should introspect whether the Chief Minister has reached the point where he should read the notes written by the ADGP. I am asking the CM again, if is he ready to reinvestigate the 158 cases using honest officials and a sitting judge. Customs officials do not get even half of the gold seized by the police. 30 to 50 percent gold is being swallowed. The Chief Minister should understand this.
3. I have'nt learnt communism. Neither have 95 per cent comrades here. The basic programme of this party is to love the poor and take strong action against communalism. But today, it has become impossible to talk freely. The fate of party state secretary Govindan is no different, then, you can imagine what could be the case with others. Everybody is expected to remain slaves to some people. This is not how a communist party must be.
4. ADGP Ajit Kumar was responsible for BJP getting a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala. Why would he do so unless asked to do so by someone? This party should survive. The comrades should think if one Riyas alone is enough. Why can't the Chief Minister understand the true colours of Sasi? No one has an opinion about him. Only the Chief Minister has a different view. The Chief Minister has no right to hold the Home Department even for a moment.
5. Whoever had something to gain by letting the BJP win a seat in Kerala must have instructed ADGP to disrupt the Thrissur Pooram. I don't know who that is. But one can't blame the BJP for this. It was fine play from theor side. It needs to be found out who made the situation favourable for them. If comrade Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was alive, it wouldn't have come to me sitting here holding the mike.
The story so far...
ADGP Ajith Kumar had top RSS leader, Ram Madhav, and further allegations surfaced that a relative of the CM and a prominent businessman close to him were present during a meeting with Ram Madhav in Kovalam in June.
At the LDF meeting held today at the AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, CPI(M) allies called for action against ADGP M. R. Ajith Kumar following revelations that he had a private meeting with the RSS leadership. However, the Chief Minister reportedly maintained that Ajith Kumar's meeting with RSS leaders would be included in the ongoing investigation, led by the DGP, which is already probing other allegations against the ADGP raised by LDF MLA P. V. Anvar.
Anvar accused Ajith Kumar of betraying the government's trust, labelling him a notorious criminal with alleged connections to gold smuggling. He also accused Ajith Kumar of amassing illicit wealth, tapping the phone conversations of politicians, including ministers, and operating with impunity due to his ties with P. Sasi. Anvar further claimed that Ajith Kumar sabotaged the Thrissur Pooram to benefit the BJP in general elections. It is in Thrissur that the BJP notably won its first Lok Sabha seat in Kerala.
However, to the dismay of the allies, CM Vijayan reportedly took a stance that there are technical issues preventing the immediate removal of ADGP Ajith Kumar, and emphasized that the high-level probe into the allegations was already underway.
P Sasi came under fire after Anvar accused him and additional director general of police (law and order) M.R. Ajith Kumar—who had been considered a close confidant of Vijayan—of betraying the trust placed in them by the government. Anwar labelled Ajith Kumar a notorious criminal with alleged connections to gold smuggling networks, accusing him of amassing illicit wealth and operating with impunity because of his ties with Sasi.