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By P. Sreekumaran

NADIR IN UDF POLITICS: OOMMEN CHANDY’S RELIEF ONLY TEMPORARY

SMOULDERING CONGRESS EMBERS MAY LEAP TO FLAME ANY TIME

By P. Sreekumaran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has survived a scare. Thus reads the headline in a prominent English daily. But has he really weathered the political storm?

Significant straws in the wind proclaim, loud and clear, that he has not. True, he has managed to secure short-term legal relief. But the price, both in political and electoral terms, the Congress and the party-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government may be called upon to pay will be prohibitively high. That is for sure.

As for the UDF politics, it is stinking to the high heavens. It cannot get any worse than this. The only question is: how long can a thoroughly discredited Government brazen it out?

The legal relief for Chandy and Power Minister Aryadan Mohammed has

PRIME MINISTER MODI’S MAIDEN KERALA VISIT A MAHA FLOP

SNDP BOSS’S LOSS IS CHIEF MINISTER CHANDY’S GAIN

By P. Sreekumaran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no mistaking it. Narendra Modi’s maiden visit to Kerala as the Prime Minister was a damp squib though the State BJP unit would have us believe that it was a roaring success.

Despite the strenuous efforts of the BJP to put a positive spin on the controversy-marred Modi visit, the stark reality is that it has defeated the very purpose for which Modi undertook the much-hyped visit.

The main purpose of the Modi mission was to unveil at Kollam the statue of former Congress Chief Minister R Shankar with the avowed objective of appropriating the legacy of Shankar like the way the BJP tried to hijack Sardar Vallabbhai Patel.  However the effort came a cropper in a most resounding manner. The most visible sign of the failure of the visit was the snu

KERALA POLITICS IN TURMOIL OVER NEW PARTY

CONFUSION PREVAILS IN BOTH BJP AND LEFT

By P. Sreekumaran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Will the formation of a political party by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SDNDP), the powerful organization of the dominant Ezhava community, catalyse the emergence of a third front in the State?

Political pundits are sharply divided on the issue. While there is one school which believes that the new party, christened Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), will speed up the emergence of the third front, there is another stream of thought which thinks otherwise.

The latter is of the firm view that the Hindus themselves are a divided lot. In support of their argument, they point to the ambivalence of the BJP itself. It is of great significance, they aver, that the BJP and the Hindu Aikya Vedi stayed away from the function which marked the launch of the BDJS.

TURMOIL IN PLANTATION SECTOR INTENSIFIES

WORKERS SUFFER AS KERALA GOVT KEEPS SILENT   By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With both the plantation owners and workers in tea,…

CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE GRIPS KERALA CPI(M)

THE PARTY’S DISCOMFITURE IS BJP’S DELIGHT   By P. Sreekumaran   Is the Kerala CPI(M) is in the grip of a crisis…

SNDP’s SOMERSAULT ON TIES WITH BJP

HAS NATESAN DEVELOPED COLD FEET?   By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A week is a long time in politics. Ask Sree Narayana…

NO LET-UP IN GOVT-ELECTION COMMISSION CONFRONTATION

UDF AGAIN CAVES IN TO IUML PRESSURE TACTICS   By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government again…

SNDP’S EFFORTS FOR ALLIANCE WITH BJP RESENTED

NSS ALSO REBUFFS ‘OVERTURES’ FROM THE SAFFRONS   From P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One step forward, two steps backward. That seems to…

VIZHINJAM PORT PROJECT: THE POLITICS OF DEVELOP0MENT

GOVT. IN A FIX OVER ADANI   By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Government is on the horns of a dilemma…

Aruvikkara By-Election Result

A SHOT IN THE ARM FOR CONGRESS AND UDF   MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR CPI(M) AND LDF   By P. Sreekumaran  …

CPI, CPI(M) MUST AVOID WAR OF WORDS

By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An unfortunate upshot of the ongoing bar bribery scam battering the ruling United Democratic Front Government has been the war of words which raged for a while between the CPI and the CPI(M).   Instead of cashing in on the acute discomfiture felt by the UDF Government on account of the bar bribery controversy, the CPI and the CPI(M) expended precious energies […]

HC ORDER FRUSTRATES ATTEMPT TO SCUTTLE PROBE AGAINST MANI

By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The covert and not-so-covert attempts to delay the preliminary investigation report by the Vigilance Department into the allegations of bribery against State Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) president, K. M. Mani, have suffered a severe setback with the Kerala High Court directing the department to submit the report within a week.   It may be mentioned that the Vigilance Department had […]

UDF GOVT REELING UNDER ‘BLOW FROM THE BAR’

By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Stunning disclosures by a member of the Bar Owners’ Association against State Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) president, K. M. Mani, has left the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in dire straits.   The Government was plunged into a crisis when working president of the Bar Owners’ Association, Biju Ramesh, made the shocking revelation that Mani demanded a bribe of […]

CM BOWS TO COURT DIRECTIVE IN ISRO SPY CASE

By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Oommen Chandy Government has, for once, been constrained to act on an adverse verdict from the Kerala High Court, this time in the infamous ISRO espionage case.   In the normal course, the Chief Minister would have chosen to ignore the HC verdict. He has done so on many earlier occasions despite public profession of having the greatest respect for court verdicts. […]

ESCALATING CPI-CPI(M) WAR OF WORDS, ARTICLES

By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An unfortunate war of words and articles has erupted between the CPI and the CPI(M), which can only cause immense damage to the communist movement in the country.   What makes it all the more saddening is that the angry exchange has come at a time when both the parties should be bending their energies towards strengthening the left, secular and democratic forces […]

ESCALATING WAR OF WORDS BETWEEN CONGRESS, KC(M)

By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was a momentous occasion worthy of a celebration. And the Kerala Congress(Mani) did celebrate the fiftieth year of its formation in grand style.   But the celebrations were marred by an acrimonious war of words and articles between the KC(M) and ‘big brother’ Congress, allies in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) in the State.   The proximate cause for the […]

CONGRESS CRISIS OVER THAROOR ISSUE DEEPENS

By P. Sreekumaran  THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The crisis plaguing the Congress in Kerala over the Shashi Tharoor issue has deepened with the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, demanding in an un precedented move, ‘appropriate action’ against the high-profile MP from Thiruvananthapuram, for his frequent praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.   Although the KPCC report has demanded appropriate action against Tharoor, it has not specified the kind of action it […]

KC(M)’s ‘HIDDEN AGENDA’  IS NOW OUT IN THE OPEN

By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The cohesion of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has been severely dented with the Kerala Congress (M) openly hinting at the possibility of the party having tie-ups with ‘like-minded’ parties outside the UDF.   The KC(M)’s latest warning came in an interview  party president and Finance Minister K. M. Mani gave to a TV channel.  In the   interview, Mani said that the […]

CHANDY’S DECISION MAY BE CHALLENGED IN COURT

By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Being clever is no crime in politics. In fact, a degree of cleverness is a prerequisite for survival in the political jungle. But when you try to be too clever by half, you run the risk of facing huge embarrassment and public ridicule.   That is the fate which has befallen Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his loyalists who stubbornly resisted KPCC […]

THE NOT-SO-HIDDEN AGENDA BEHIND THE KMML GAS LEAK

By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Was the gas leak at the public sector unit, Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd(KMML), sometime back, in which 130 school children had to be hospitalized, an accident or was it a well-planned effort to ensure the permanent closure of yet another PSU unit in the State?   This is the question uppermost in the minds of not only the KMML workers but […]