Embattled Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has some reason to cheer with leading coalition partners in his government saying that there is no need for him to resign yet because of the solar scam case.
Chandy and Cabinet colleague and Electricity Minister Aryadan Muhammed had invited strictures from a Thrissur vigilance court yesterday, which ordered that an FIR and a case be registered against them.
This had triggered a call by the Opposition parties demanding Chandy's 'immediate resignation.'
'NOT GUILTY'
'Filing of an FIR does not mean that the person concerned is pronounced guilty," former finance minister K.M. Mani, who himself had to quit following adverse court remarks in the bar bribery case, said here.
Mani is the chairman of the Kerala Congress (Mani) party, the third largest coalition partner in the five-year-old Congress-led government.
He made a distinction in his case saying it was the High Court of Kerala that was involved, which had suggested that he listen to the call of conscience on whether to stand down or not.
The court had not found him guilty by any stretch of imagination, it was just that he proceeded to put in his papers “to uphold the loftiest traditions of democracy.”
'OPPOSITION PLOT'
But Mani said he could not predict what would happen in the future. He said this in the context of the prospects for the return of K Babu, Excise Minister and co-accused in the bar bribery case, who had resigned six days ago after the same vigilance court had ordered an FIR, but which had since been kept in abeyance by the High Court.
Mani went on to say that the current controversy was the result the of Opposition CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front hatching a conspiracy with disgruntled bar owners, who were upset about the new liquor policy of the government.
Meanwhile, the Indian Union Muslim League, the second biggest coalition partner in the government, too has voiced its support to the Chief Minister.
Its president Panakkad Shihab Ali Thangal found the Opposition to be the main instigator of the solar scam controversy that was aimed at disgracing the Chief Minister.