Kerala Assembly Speaker and veteran Congressman G Karthikeyan has announced his resignation, ending prolonged speculation about his impending return to party politics.
“I have placed a request with the party leadership to be relieved of my position as Speaker. It is for it to decide on the matter,” Karthikeyan told newspersons here.
He had met senior leaders AK Antony, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Pradesh Congress Committee President VM Sudheeran before announcing the decision in public.
“The party anointed me as Speaker. I’ve been working in that capacity for over three years now. But I would now like to return to active politics,” Karthikeyan said.
The resignation is expected to take effect in a week’s time, according to party sources. This may also force the Chief Minister to pursue the long-delayed reshuffle of the State Cabinet.
Interestingly, this comes at a time when Chandy has gone on record several times in recent times about the need for a reshuffle which has, however, not found favour with VM Sudheeran, party President in Kerala.
Political observers suspect that this might also bring back the spectre of faction-led politics that would have ramifications not just for the ruling Congress-led ruling coalition but the State Government at large.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.