Kerala BJP president arrested outside state assembly; Vijayan govt wins no confidence

Kerala BJP State President K Surendran was arrested and removed from the gates of Kerala Assembly where the party staged a protest demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with regards to his alleged involvement in the gold smuggling case.

'Against basic principles of parliamentary democracy'

“BJP will continue its agitation and protest across the state till CM steps down,” said the party president. Meanwhile, dramatic events took place inside the Assembly which passed the resolution against the privatisation of the Thiruvananthapuram airport.  

BJP’s MLA O Rajagopal was not given an opportunity to speak against the resolution. The lone MLA of the party who won from Nemam constituency in Thiruvananthapuram walked out of the Assembly and inaugurated the protest outside the gates.
Joining the chorus, Union Minister for State V Muraleedharan lent his voice to the protest through his tweet where he termed the incident as “undemocratic” and “against the basic principles of parliamentary democracy.”

The party leader was forcefully evicted by Kerala Police along with other members including general secretaries George Kurien and P Sudheer, vice president VT Rema and secretaries Suresh and C Sivankutty. Earlier, the demand for the resignation of CM was also supported by the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis in his address through a webinar.

He exalted the party led by Surendran in the state to “Keep up the great fight to save Kerala from the anti-national activities.”
Terming the Chief Minister of Kerala as “traitors of Bharat Mata”, Fadnavis called out the involvement of the ruling left-led LDF government in the gold smuggling scam through diplomatic channels. He also appealed to everyone to join the fight led by Surendran.

No confidence motion defeated

A marathon assembly that lasted 11 hours, finally led to the defeat of the no-confidence motion introduced by four-time MLA, VD Satheeshan with a score of 87-40. The opposition which won the debate articulated and attacked the Vijayan government on a number of issues including the gold smuggling scam, Life mission projects as well as misuse of private consultants.

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In response, Chief Minister, however, gave an unintelligible and garrulous 4-hour response. Instead of responding to the allegation began listing his government’s achievements since 2016. The loquacious talk delved into ridiculing the lack of leadership in the Indian National Congress, Ram Temple and topics which were not connected to the issues raised by the opposition.

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Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala in his press meet after the marathon assembly said that Chief Minister evaded proper replies to eight instances of corruption pointed out during the motion. “The opposition was able to expose the corruption of this government,’ he said.

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