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NDTV
21-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
VS Achuthanandan, Former Chief Minister Of Kerala, Dies At 101
Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran CPM leader and former Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan died on Monday, after a long hospitalization. The 101-year-old was admitted to a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on June 23 after he suffered a suspected cardiac arrest at home. He had been in the intensive care unit on ventilator support. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM state secretary MV Govindan have rushed to the hospital to meet the family and speak to the attending doctors. A steady stream of political leaders are already making a beeline for the hospital to pay their respects. The veteran leader had been staying alternately with his son or daughter in Thiruvananthapuram since he quit as the Chairman of the Administrative Reforms Committee in January 2021. A towering figure in Kerala's political landscape, Achutanandan's populist stance and uncompromising image won him admiration across party lines. Achuthanandan had been the Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2006, when he had spearheaded the attack on the UDF government led by AK Antony. In 2006, he had led the CPM-led Left Democratic Front to victory and served as Chief Minister from 2006 to 2011. In 2011, he crafted the LDF campaign and leading from the front, came close to securing a second term, but the Oommen Chandy-led UDF managed a narrow win, securing 72 seats in the 140-member Assembly.
Time of India
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Shah sets target of 20k seats, 25% vote share for NDA in local body polls
Thiruvananthapuram: Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday urged BJP members in the state to work hard to ensure the NDA wins over 20,000 seats and secures 25% of the votes in the upcoming local body elections. The state has a total of 23,612 wards across its local self-govt institutions, including grama panchayats, block panchayats, district panchayats, municipalities and corporations. Addressing party workers at a ward-level leadership meet at Putharikandam Maidan, Shah said BJP had established its presence in all booths in Kerala and would form the govt in the state after 2026 assembly election. "If the people of Kerala want development, they have only one choice — the BJP. They should end the practice of alternating between LDF and UDF," Shah said. He inaugurated the leadership meet after opening the new BJP state office. Shah said BJP's vote share had risen from 11% in 2014 to 16% in 2019, and it touched 20% in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Both LDF and UDF had been involved in corruption whenever they were in power, while the NDA govt led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not faced any corruption allegation. He said the 2020 gold smuggling case was the biggest corruption scam ever sponsored by a state govt in the country. "A developed India is not possible unless south Indian states develop. And Kerala's development is not possible without BJP," he said, adding that the party would wrest power in Tamil Nadu also in the upcoming assembly election. Shah asserted that BJP was not a north Indian party as claimed by political opponents. "BJP won and formed the govt in Assam. BJP wrested power from CPM in Tripura. It also came to power in Odisha. Opponents always used to dismiss BJP's efforts to form govt in these states, but we proved them wrong. After the 2026 assembly election, the BJP-led NDA would form govt in Kerala too," he said. Shah alleged that under LDF and UDF govts, Kerala had become a hub of corruption, appeasement, violence and anti-national activities. "The CPM-led LDF govt did nothing to stop the emergence of Popular Front of India (PFI) as an anti-national force. It was the Modi govt that banned PFI when it started making its presence in other states, posing a threat to the country. PFI is still alive in Kerala in different forms. CPM must clarify what action the LDF govt has taken against this communal terror group," he said. Shah said BJP placed the welfare of the country above the interests of its own cadre, but the focus for CPM was always on the welfare of its own cadre. PM Modi has declared adherence to three principles: corruption-free governance, non-discriminatory governance and the end of vote-bank politics, he said, adding that Kerala can progress only by following the path laid down by Modi and his govt.
Time of India
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Officials to tour BJP-ruled MP to study Indore sanitation model
T'puram: Even as the state govt faces mounting criticism over its handling of waste management, including the toxic smoke crisis from the Brahmapuram fire in Kochi in 2023, a team of senior officials is heading to BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh to study the acclaimed sanitation model of Indore municipal corporation. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The move comes months ahead of the local body elections, where the govt's performance on civic issues is expected to be a major campaign theme. A delegation led by local self govt special secretary T V Anupama will visit Indore from July 8 to 10 to study the city's solid waste management practices and sanitation systems. The visit is based on the city's consistent record as the country's cleanest under the Swachh Survekshan rankings. A govt order approving the visit was issued on July 2. This is not the first time that a CPM-led govt in Kerala is turning to BJP-governed states for insights into administrative systems. In 2022, a team led by then chief secretary V P Joy visited Gujarat from April 27 to 29 to study its real-time e-governance dashboard and described the Gujarat model as "remarkable". The latest visit, also coinciding with the chief minister's current trip to the US for follow-up treatment, has once again brought focus to the LDF govt's approach of borrowing governance models from states it has traditionally criticised. It has also reignited political discussions on the CPM's shifting stance on engaging with BJP-ruled states. Back in 2013, the party took a sharp position against even symbolic engagements with BJP leaders. When then labour minister Shibu Baby John met the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad to discuss labour sector practices, CPM demanded that chief minister Oommen Chandy clarify the govt's position. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Pinarayi Vijayan, then CPM state secretary, was vocal in stating that there was "nothing in Gujarat's labour sector Kerala needs to learn. " The party even demanded Shibu's resignation. In contrast, the current official visit to Indore is being undertaken without much political commentary from the CPM, though it comes at a time when the state's own waste management record has been severely criticised. The Brahmapuram fire incident in 2023, which choked Kochi with toxic smoke for days, prompted widespread public outrage and legal scrutiny, exposing serious flaws in Kerala's waste handling infrastructure. "With the local body polls nearing, civic issues like garbage management, sanitation and public health are expected to dominate public discourse. The Indore visit, while aimed at adopting best practices, may also be viewed through the lens of political messaging and damage control," a senior official in the department said on conditions of anonymity. While officials maintain that there is no contradiction in studying successful models regardless of which party governs a state, political observers say such visits inevitably draw attention when past statements and current actions appear misaligned. The key question, however, remains whether these study tours will translate into meaningful reforms on the ground or remain symbolic gestures without follow-through, as happened with the 2022 Gujarat tour.
New Indian Express
01-07-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Ravada was a bittersweet option for Kerala government as new DGP
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The appointment of Ravada A Chandrasekhar as the new state police chief was on expected lines, to put it bluntly. Unlike the previous two instances — in 2021, when Anil Kant, and in 2023, when Shaik Darvesh Saheb were selected — the government this time round was short of options and the writing on the wall was clear. In 2021, the selection boiled down to Anil Kant or B Sandhya, while in 2023 it was Shaik Darvesh vs K Padmakumar. There were frenetic lobbying and umpteen last-minute patch-up meets to shore up the claims of the candidates. The government was hard-pressed due to its options. This time, though, the situation was reversed. The government was in a quandary as the three names expected in the UPSC shortlist — Nitin Agarwal, Ravada and Yogesh Gupta — appealed to it the least. Nitin, the government assessed, was not popular with fellow officers. It had questions about Yogesh after he allegedly transferred files on K M Abraham, chief principal secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, to a central agency without consulting the state government. With Ravada, the CPM-led government had an axe to grind. He was indicted in the 1994 Koothuparamba firing incident, a rallying point of left youth activism, in which five DYFI members were killed. At the time Ravada was an ASP, fresh out of training from the SVP National Police Academy, Hyderabad. The officer was suspended in connection with the incident, but was later redrafted. However, the High Court quashed the case against cops, including Ravada, after the government did not issue sanction for prosecution. Sources within the police and the government say Ravada was chosen out of compulsion. 'Ravada is undoubtedly a good candidate. He is soft-spoken and can take the entire pack along with him. But he carries the stigma of being involved in the Koothuparamba case. But the government chose to overlook it as it was not at all comfortable with the other two names. So, the moment UPSC sent back the shortlist, it was almost decided who the next police chief would be,' a highly placed source said.
Time of India
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Bypoll election results: AAP wins 2 seats, Trinamool & BJP 1 each; Congress wins in Kerala
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel New Delhi: In the assembly by-polls held for five seats across four states, AAP won two while the BJP Congress and Trinamool Congress won one seat Gujarat, the ruling BJP retained Kadi in Mehsana district, while AAP retained Visavadar in Junagarh. AAP also retained the Ludhiana West seat in Punjab. Trinamool Congress retained the Kaliganj seat while Congress snatched the Nilambur seat from the CPM in candidate Sanjeev Arora won the Ludhiana West assembly seat by a margin of 10,637 votes, an improvement over the previous margin of 7,512 votes in 2022. The seat fell vacant after the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi. Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu got 24,542 votes while BJP candidate Jiwan Gupta got 20,323 Gujarat, BJP's Rajendra Chavda defeated Congress candidate Ramesh Chavda by a margin of 38,904 votes in Kadi. In Visavadar, AAP's Gopal Italia bagged 75,906 votes against BJP's Kirit Patel's 58,325 votes, while Congress's Nitin Ranpariya got 5,491 votes. With this, BJP now has 162 members in the 182-seat assembly while Congress has 12, AAP five and there are three West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress retained the Kaliganj seat with party candidate Alifa Ahemed winning the seat by a margin of 50,049 votes. BJP candidate Ashish Ghosh stood second with 52,710 votes while Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Shaikh got 28,348 Congress wrested the Nilambur Assembly seat in Kerala, marking a morale booster for the United Democratic Front (UDF) against the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the run-up to next year's assembly elections. The Congress candidate Aryadan Shoukath defeated CPM's M Swaraj by 11,077 votes.
