Issac cornered at CPI-M leaders' meeting over KSFE raid outburst

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 1 Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, despite his office coming under fire for numerous alleged scams, on Tuesday showed that his clout in the party and government was undiminished. The CPI-M secretariat meeting held here saw Finance Minister Thomas Issac getting a dressing down for his outburst against the raid by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) at the state owned Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) last week.

Soon after the raid Issac issued a strong statement that the raid was nothing but sheer madness, as despite him being the Minister in charge of KSFE, he was not given any intimation of the raid,

Later both the Congress and the BJP said that the raid indicates that Vijayan and Issac are at loggerheads and for the first time it has surfaced in the open.

On Monday, Vijayan made no bones that none should try to drive a wedge between him, Issac and party veteran A. Anandan, who soon after the raid lashed out against the manner in which it was conducted.

Vijayan said there was no need for the concerned Minister to be aware of a raid.

At the party Secretariat meeting Issac came under fire and the grapevine has it that he offered to resign, but it was shot down by party general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Arriving for the meeting and also when he left, Issac appeared downcast. Adding insult to injury two of his cabinet colleagues, K. Surendran and G. Sudhakaran also rallied behind Vijayan and contested Issac's earlier statement that the concerned Minister should be made aware if there is a raid in his department.

Soon after the meeting the party came out with a statement echoing Vijayan's words that the KSFE raid was a routine one.

"There is no disconnect between the party and the government as this is the work of the opposition and a section of the media to portray the good governance of the Left government," said the party statement.

The KSFE is incorporated as a miscellaneous non-banking financial company and is fully owned by the Kerala government. Its turnover is in excess of Rs 40,000 crores.

Its most popular product is the chits business.