Assembly session starting Monday likely to be rescheduled

Thiruvananthapuram: The full-fledged Budget session of the Assembly beginning here Monday is likely to be rescheduled in view of the Aruvikkara Assembly bypoll to be held on June 27.

The session has been convened to pass department wise allocations in the Budget presented in March for year 2015-16.

The session was scheduled from June 8 to July 2 and after a short recess, from July 20 to July 30. However, the assembly business advisory committee meeting, to be held Monday, would take a final decision on rescheduling the session, official sources said.

The sources said there was a demand for rescheduling the session as ministers would not be able to announce new schemes in the wake of the model code of conduct in force.

Besides this, the campaign in Aruvikkara has started picking up with both ruling Congress-led UDF and CPI-M headed LDF holding election conventions and leaders have to participate in electioneering.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of former Assembly Speaker, G Karthikeyan, whose son, Sabarinath, is the Congress candidate in the election.

Aruvikkara is witnessing a triangular contest, with LDF putting up former Speaker, M Vijaykumar (CPI-M) and BJP fielding former Union Minister O Rajagopal.

The bypoll is considered very crucial for both LDF, UDF and BJP, struggling for a political breakthrough in assembly and Lok Sabha polls, as it comes just a year ahead of the state assembly polls.

Though, the poll result would not pose any immediate threat to the stability of the UDF government which has a wafer thin majority in the 140-member strong assembly, with 73 members, a defeat for the Congress candidate would be a loss of face as Karthikeyan represented the segment for the past 25 years. LDF has 65 members.

Kerala Congress (B), with lone MLA K B Ganeshkumar, that left UDF, has not formally joined LDF fold, but is actively participating in the campaign against the UDF candidate.

The session starting Monday has assumed significance as it is the first session to be held after the unprecedented bedlam over the bar bribery licence scam on March 13 when Finance Minister K M Mani presented the Budget.

LDF members, who protested the presentation of the budget by Mani, facing charges of corruption in the scam, created ruckus and there was also scuffle between MLAs of the respective fronts.

With LDF continuing its stir against Mani demanding his resignation over his alleged involvement in the scam, the assembly was adjourned sine die few days later after passing the finance and appropriation bills without discussion.

Issues relating to the LDF charge that some of their women MLAs were physically harassed by certain ruling MLAs during the uproar in the assembly are yet to be resolved.