In an unprecedented development in recent times, ministers belonging to CPI have boycotted the weekly Cabinet meeting that began at the government secretariat here a short while ago on Wednesday.
The boycotted have gathered at the office of Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan in the building in which the Cabinet was in progress.
Transport Minister Thomas Chandy, facing strident demand for his resignation, called on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at his office at the secretariat before the Cabinet meeting began. Details of the discussions at the meeting were not immediately known.
He would offer his explanations to the Chief Minister before the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, T.P. Peethambaran, party State president, said on Tuesday.
CPI leaders had earlier questioned how a Minister who had filed a case against the government that he is part of could continue in office and discharge his constitutionally mandated responsibilities after having challenged a government action in a court of law.
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition by Transport Minister Thomas Chandy challenging a report by the Alappuzha Collector on the alleged encroachments by a company in which he has stake.
Mr. Vijayan is expected to meet the press at 10.30 am. The verdict copy is expected to reach the capital by then.
Already under fire from coalition partners for bending over backwards to protect Mr. Chandy and causing severe embarrassment to the government, the NCP State executive, on Tuesday, has now shifted to damage control to ensure no further discomfiture to the government, as a leader put it. Mr. Chandy did not attend the meeting.
The leadership, with whom Mr. Chandy, a businessman, enjoys considerable clout, left the final decision to the party’s central leadership, having “conveyed the majority sentiments.”
Sources indicated that Mr. Chandy is most likely to step down after a meeting with senior leader Praful Patel on Thursday. Former minister A.K. Saseendran, whom he replaced in the cabinet, is expected to return as decided earlier.
