Foul New Year start for Vijayan Govt as new and outgoing transport ministers squabble

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the Pinarayi Vijayan Government, the New Year appears to have started on a sour note with the newly-inducted State Transport Minister KB Ganesh Kumar, slamming outgoing Minister Antony Raju.

While Kumar belongs to the Kerala Congress (B), Raju belongs to the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress.

Raju vacated the post of Transport Minister for Kumar as part of an agreement in the ruling Left Front that after 30 months parties having just one legislator would vacate posts for other parties having a single legislator.

Thus, Kumar was sworn in on Friday along with Kadannappalli Ramachandran of the Congress (S) and soon after that Kumar slammed Raju and the way the State Transport Department was run.

Not only did Kumar lash out at the outgoing Minister he also gave orders to cancel the transfer orders issued in the department last week, before Raju stepped down.

Raju, too, hit back quickly at Kumar, expressing his displeasure, however, on the advice of the CPI(M) brass Kumar did not respond to his comments.

Meanwhile Raju and his party have decided to raise this issue at the next Left Front meeting and have already written to its convenor on Kumar hitting out at the outgoing Minister.