Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Assembly began on Monday morning adhering to Covid protocol. All MLAs were tested for Covid before the start of the session and no members were confirmed with the infection.

The no-confidence motion against the state government will be moved by VD Satheesan MLA shortly. Speaker Sreeramakrishnan has given approval to move the same.

Meanwhile, the opposition MLAs reached the house with banners and protested inside the House. The motion is being moved to demand Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's resignation amid allegations of corruption in his office linked to the gold smuggling case.

Though the outcome of the no-trust motion is expected to favour the ruling due to their massive majority in the 140-member Assembly, the Opposition is expected to turn up the heat with corruption allegations against Chief Minister’s office and the government. While the Opposition will try to corner the government with all the scams and corruption allegations, the latter will try to defend itself on each account.

Issues like Sprinklr deal, BevQ, sand mining, e-mobility, gold smuggling, Life Mission, privatization of Thiruvananthapuram airport etc are some of the topics, UDF may bring up.

The session began at 9 am and end by 3 pm.

It is expected that the Finance Bill would be taken up first. While the state budget was presented in February, the Finance Bill 2020-21 could not be passed as the state assembly had been adjourned sine die on March 13 in the backdrop of the coronavirus scare.

Also, Kerala government is likely to announce a Vigilance probe into the Life Mission project to defend the Opposition’s allegations.

The byelection to the Rajya Sabha seat which fell vacant after the May 28 death of sitting member 84-year old M P Veerandra Kumar, a media baron and veteran socialist, would also be held on Monday.

While the Opposition had sought at least two days for discussion on the no-confidence motion, Speaker Sreeramakrishnan granted only five hours.

This is after 15 years, Kerala Assembly is witnessing a no-confidence motion. The last was on July 12, 2005, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had moved the same against Oommen Chandy government.

Also, this is the 16th in terms of Kerala Assembly history. Only once, no-confidence motion was passed. On September 3, 1964 the no-confidence motion moved by PK Kunju was passed following which the R Sankar government resigned.