CM Vijayan should resign as his daughter, top official accused of corruption: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Chandrasekhar, a former Union Minister in the second Narendra Modi cabinet, was appointed last month as the new state president of the BJP.

He was reacting to the news that the Kerala High Court has ordered a CBI probe against K.M. Abraham.

Abraham, the Chief Principal Secretary to CM Vijayan and a former Chief Secretary, said in his defence that he would leave it to the Chief Minister to decide whether he should continue in office or not.

Speaking to IANS, Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday that the CPI(M) government has clearly outdone the previous Congress governments in mastering the art of corruption.

“From the gold smuggling scandal linked to the top brass of the administration to his Chief Principal Secretary K.M. Abraham’s disproportionate assets case, and now the CM’s daughter (Veena Vijayan) being charge sheeted in a monthly payout racket, the corruption starts right at the top and runs deep. Both the CPI(M) and Congress have entrenched corruption and nepotism into Kerala’s political culture,” said Chandrasekhar, who gave a tough fight to three-time sitting Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“Since his daughter, chief principal secretary has been accused of corruption, the Chief Minister must not lose a minute in resigning. What we need is not corrupt governance but governance that creates opportunities for all in a Viksit Keralam,” said Chandrasekhar.

The Chief Minister's daughter, Veena Vijayan, is also facing the heat as the SFIO has, by now, found out that her IT firm had allegedly received a monthly gratification of around Rs 2.70 crore from the CMRL for mining sanctions.

The SFIO has filed a charge sheet against her and the CMRL. A court in Kochi dealing with economic offence cases will soon be sending summons to the accused in this case.