Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy on Tuesday said he would 'legally and morally' fight the recent attempts by the LDF government to implicate him in the palmolein import graft case.
"I will fight it legally and morally. The case is 20 years old and so far I was not named anywhere as an accused. They may do it now if they want, but should first explain to the people why I was not linked to the case in the last 20 years," Chandy said, addressing a meet-the-press programme here.
He evaded a direct answer to a question whether he would contest the polls if the Court decided in favour of the government's appeal to reopen the case for further investigation on the ground that some more persons were likely
to become accused in the case.
The Vigilance Court here had yesterday reserved to March 14 orders on the state government's plea to reinvestigate the case, relating to alleged corruption in importing pamolein from Malaysia, causing a loss of Rs 2.32 crore in 1991-92 when late Congress leader K Karunarakan was Chief Minister.
The move was seen as an attempt to implicate Chandy, who was Finance minister in the K Karunakaran ministry which cleared the deal in 1992.
Asked about KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala's statement that he would contest if the party High Command directed him, Chandy said majority in the party wanted him to contest.
Chandy said the UDF did not usually project anyone as chief ministerial candidate before elections. "We have a collective leadership and are approaching voters with a programme," he said.
To a question, Chandy said the UDF was least bothered about who was leading the Left Democratic Front. "We have a Chief Minister who had broken all his promises. What is now going on about his candidature is mere drama," he said.
Chandy alleged that with its ineptitude and negative political stance, the LDF goverment had created an administrative impasse in the state during the last five years. The last budget of the LDF contained hollow promises without specific allocations, he said.
He alleged that `negative politics' of LDF was responsible for the delay in the implementation of major projects of the state like the Vizhinjam port, Kochi metro rail and Smart City. The state had also not co-operated with the Centre to
implement the schemes formulated by the latter, Chandy said.
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