Chandy Govt completes one year in office

Friday, May 18, 2012: The UDF government headed by Oommen Chandy appears to be on a surer footing after it completed one year in office as it has weathered many a political storm and strengthened investment prospects of the state.
68-year-old Chandy assumed office on May 18 last year after the coalition unseated the LDF, securing a slender majority of 72 MLAs in the 14-member state assembly.
Though in Kerala’s highly politicised scenario, the LDF has never lost any chance to prick UDF claims of high performance, Chandy passed a major political test when UDF won the Piravom assembly by-poll by a comfortable margin a few months back.
When it enters the second year, UDF is faced with another challenge in the form of a by-poll from Neyyattinkara assembly segment in Thiruvananthapuram district, caused by resignation of CPI(M) MLA R Selvaraj in March. Selvaraj stunned CPI(M) by quitting the party and the assembly membership and back in the fray as the UDF candidate by joining the Congress.
LDF, which took up the fight with bravado that government’s claims would be exposed, seems on the defensive at Neyyattinkara after CPI(M) came under a cloud in the wake of the murder of Marxist rebel and RMP leader TP Chandrasekharan
Observers feel if UDF wins the seat, it will certainly be a feather on Chandy’s cap and further consolidate his position.
UDF was not without its moments of image crisis during the year over issues like insistence of Indian Union Muslim League for a fifth ministerial berth, a demand which met with stiff opposition from the Congress itself, which maintained that it would upset the ‘communal balance’ of the ministry.
Critics in Congress then argued that giving another cabinet berth to IUML would send wrong signals to the Hindu community as Christians and Muslims are already dominating the ministry.