Opposition, ruling front look to cash in on Assembly ruckus

Thiruvananthapuram

The ruling front and the Opposition scrambled to bend the political narrative about the chaotic incidents in the Assembly on Wednesday to their respective advantage by airing diametrically different points of view of the developments.

For one, the stand-off led to a verbal duel between Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan and Public Works Minister Mohammed Riyas.

Mr. Riyas angered Mr. Satheesan by stating that the Opposition leader “lacked spine and was Sangh Parivar’s stooge”.

Later at a press conference, Mr. Satheesan countered that Mr. Riyas owed his ministerial berth to his father-in-law and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

“Mr. Riyas got a management quota berth in the Cabinet. Now, he is attempting to turn the Opposition against Speaker A.N. Shamseer, given their intra-party rivalry. Mr. Riyas’s attempt to upstage the Speaker through public relations stunts has fallen flat. So he is employing a different set of tactics to vilify the Speaker by setting the Chair against the Opposition,” Mr. Satheesan said.

KPCC president K. Sudhakaran slammed CPI(M) MLAs for attempting to strong-arm the Opposition into submission.

Mr. Sudhakaran called for Statewide protests against CPI(M) violence against Opposition MLAs in the House.