In a first, Kerala Cabinet led by Pinarayi Vijayan on month-long outreach yatra to talk of govt schemes

Addressing the media on Wednesday, CM Vijayan said the government has already made several strides towards creating a new Kerala. “Such initiatives have to be communicated to the people. The government wants feedback on what society thinks about its developmental initiatives,” he said.

Slamming the programme, senior Congress legislator and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) V D Satheesan called Nava Kerala Sadas a government-sponsored poll campaign. “The LDF should conduct the election campaign at its own cost. The CPI(M) has no right to squander taxpayers’ money on a poll campaign. This is meant for an overhaul of the state government. The UDF will boycott the programme,” he said.

Earlier this year, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan had carried out a similar Kerala yatra, the “Janakeeya Prathirodha Jatha (People’s Defence Journey)”, covering all 140 Assembly constituencies in the state. Govindan’s yatra was geared at sensitising people against central policies of the BJP government that are “detrimental” to the state, besides exposing the Sangh Parivar’s “communal agenda”.

As a precursor to the Cabinet’s state tour, the CM is conducting a regional review of all projects and flagship schemes. The first such review was done in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday; the second will be held in Thrissur on Friday. In addition, the government will showcase its achievements in a seven-day-long extravaganza titled, “Keraleeyam 23”, in the first week of November at Thiruvananthapuram.

The month-long tour now comes at a time when the CPI(M) in Kerala is confronting several political controversies, like the payment scandal that figured in an Income Tax report, and the financial frauds at co-operative banks.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, Vijayan carried the aura of a “captain” who led the government from the front in moments of crisis. Although the strategy of pitching him as the face and development as the main poll plank failed in the recent Assembly by-election at Puthuppally, the CPI(M) seems to be again banking on him for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.