NCP-SP MLA Thomas warns of stern action after CM Vijayan's 'taunt'

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 4 (IANS) Miffed by the way Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asked him to wait to replace his party colleague in the council of ministers, NCP-SP legislator Thomas K. Thomas on Friday warned that he will be forced to act on his own. 

"There is a limit to the way I have been treated as it’s a humiliation because my own party national leadership has cleared me to become a minister," said a peeved Thomas.

Thomas is up in arms after Vijayan on Thursday asked the visiting delegation of the NCP-SP members that they will have to wait for the replacement of their party's current minister - Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran -- by Thomas.

"I will wait for a week more and if my party decision is not implemented, then I will decide what needs to be done. The CM has to tell me what is the issue and I need to know why I have been asked to wait," Thomas said.

NCP-SP state President P.C. Chacko is also not pleased by Vijayan's action of asking Thomas to wait, as in a coalition government, the decision of the party leadership concerned is of prime importance and Thomas has been cleared to replace Saseendran by none other than the party’s national President Sharad Pawar, at a meeting in which Chacko, Saseendran and Thomas took part.

On Thursday, the NCP-SP leaders were told by Vijayan that he needed a bit more time to make a decision on this matter.

According to political analysts, it was after several months of perseverance that Thomas succeeded in convincing the party leadership to let him replace senior party colleague Saseendran as the state's new Forest Minister.

In Kerala, the NCP-SP is part of the ruling CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front and has two legislators - Saseendran and Thomas. Since November 2023, affairs in the party's Kerala unit have been turbulent after Thomas put his foot down, demanding the earlier decided formula where Saseendran would step down after two and half years and Thomas would take over as minister. But while two other LDF constituents who have just one legislator made way for two other parties having just one legislator, Saseendran did not make way for Thomas.

Thomas is the brother of the late former state minister, Thomas Chandy, who passed away in 2019. Chandy was an NRI businessman-turned-legislator and, because he was busy with his business interests in Kuwait, it was Thomas who was always looking after the Kuttanadu Assembly constituency in the Alappuzha district. The NCP did not have to look elsewhere for the 2021 Assembly polls and on expected lines, Thomas won the seat. However, when Vijayan constituted the Cabinet in 2021, the NCP decided to stick with Saseendran for another turn.