Govt defeats no-confidence motion; CM delivers longest ever speech in assembly

Thiruvananthapuram: After 11-hours of long discussion and nearly four hours of reply from the chief minister, the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against the government was defeated for 40 against 87 votes in the assembly on Monday. Though five hours was decided for the discussion, the allegations and response prolonged the session and the voting was held at 9.20 pm.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan delivered the longest speech in the history of Kerala assembly by taking 3 hours 42 minutes to respond to the allegations raised by the opposition. When the CM's speech exceeded 3 hours, the opposition members started protesting, but he did not stop and took nearly one hour again before concluding the speech.

Roshy Augustine and N Jayaraj, MLAs from Kerala Congress Jose K Mani faction, did not take part in the voting due to issues with the UDF. BJP MLA O Rajagopal also stayed away from voting saying he wants to neither support nor oppose the motion. Minister K T Jaleel, who faced several allegations, also was not present in the assembly.

The no-confidence motion was moved by Congress MLA V D Satheesan. Those who spoke from the opposition highlighted all the corruption cases that have been in the news for the past few months, including the Sprinklr data scam, the gold smuggling case, corruption in the Life Mission project and the protocol violation of State Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel.

While replying to the motion, Pinarayi Vijayan read out his government's achievements similar to that of a progress report and on numerous occasions the opposition members expressed their ire as they waited for the CM's response on the various corruption cases.

The CM gave a clean chit to Jaleel and said that he had done no wrong. "It was the UAE Consulate which contacted Jaleel and gave food kits and the holy Quran, which he distributed. He has done no wrong at all," said the CM.

The opposition members lost their cool after three hours and with the CM continuing to ignore all the grave corruption issues, they trooped into the well of the House and started to raise slogans. After sitting down for few minutes amid the din, Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the Congress and the BJP for joining hands against his government.

"Now one doesn't know if the Congress is the B team of the BJP or vice-versa. Everyone knows that they are hand in glove and the BJP state president is spreading canards against the government. All the allegations are baseless and the people of Kerala know us and we also know the people. Likewise, the people also know the present opposition," said the CM.

Like on a few earlier occasions, Vijayan again raked up the solar scam which took place during the Oommen Chandy government, where a conwoman, Saritha Nair, used a few staff of Chandy to cheat investors promising them solar panels.

"We all saw the shameful incident of a Chief Minister (Chandy) sitting before a judicial commission. Such a thing had never happened before in Kerala. Also, everyone knows how Nira Radia was making Cabinet ministers in the UPA government. We are not like them," said Vijayan.

Earlier, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that contrary to the previous Left governments, where the CPI-M always had an iron grip on the government, this time the CPI-M state secretary has turned out to be a mere onlooker.

"Vijayan has turned into an autocrat and not even a single minister has the guts to speak against him. Even though he controls everything, he has no clue of what's happening in his office. But people know everything," said Chennithala.

Later while speaking to the media after the motion was defeated, Chennithala said this was the 16th no-confidence motion moved in the Assembly and Vijayan has run away without even answering the basic issues raised by the opposition.

"No Chief Minister in the past ran away like this. We raised eight specific corruption allegations and surprisingly, he failed to answer any of them. Technically we have lost the motion, but the people of Kerala now know everything and we will continue our protest against the most corrupt government in Kerala," said Chennithala.

The assembly also passed the Finance Bill 2020-21, which could not be done after the state budget in February as the house was adjourned sine die on March 13 due to the coronavirus scare.

(With inputs from agencies)