Chandy faces fresh alliance hassle

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, already beleaguered by the problems emanating from the allocation of a fifth Cabinet berth to ruling front partner Muslim League, is now facing another conundrum with ally Kerala Congress (B) demanding removal of its Minister KB Ganesh Kumar from the Cabinet.


The KC(B) made the demand formally on Tuesday even as Chandy and State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala were asked by the Congress high command to sort out the issues related to allocation of the fifth Cabinet berth to Muslim League between them and Chandy's own act of shuffling the portfolios of Congress Ministers loyal to him.


In a letter written by party chairman R Balakrishna Pillai, a former Minister whom the Supreme Court had sent to jail last year in a corruption case, the KC (B) asked the Chief Minister to remove Ganesh Kumar, Pillai's son, from the Cabinet for failing to function in accordance with the interests and instructions of the party. Chandy was yet to get the letter.


"I had informed the Chief Minister of this at least 20 times in the past one year but he had not given the required attention to it," Pillai said in Kumily on Tuesday. However, he said that he would take part in a meeting of the ruling UDF to be held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday to discuss the matter in which Chandy and Chennithala would participate.