Kerala CM, Ministers Boycott PM’s Event Over PWD Minister’s Exclusion

Kochi, Mar 11: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and several state ministers stayed away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official programme in Kochi on Wednesday amid controversy over the alleged exclusion of Public Works Department (PWD) Minister P A Mohammed Riyas from the event.

The prime minister is scheduled to inaugurate a series of development projects, including the first phase of the six-lane expansion of National Highway 66, during a programme held at 12.30 pm in the city.

Key projects to be launched include the Thalappady–Chengala stretch of NH-66 and the Vengalam–Ramanattukara section of the Kozhikode bypass, both upgraded to six lanes to improve connectivity and traffic flow.

Government sources said Vijayan decided not to attend the event despite his name appearing in the official programme schedule. No formal explanation was provided for the chief minister’s absence.

State ministers M B Rajesh and K Krishnankutty, who were also invited to the event, said they would not attend due to personal commitments.

Reacting to the development, PWD Minister P A Mohammed Riyas said he had not received any official invitation to the function and described the move as political and “not befitting a democracy”.

Riyas said that PWD ministers in the state had traditionally been invited to the inauguration of highway projects and argued that excluding the department from such an event was unjustified. He emphasised that the Kerala government played a crucial role in implementing national highway projects by facilitating land acquisition and contributing funds.

The minister also claimed that the NH-66 development programme had been revived only after the Left Democratic Front government assumed office in 2016. According to him, the National Highways Authority of India had earlier indicated that the project might be abandoned before the state government intervened to revive it.

Riyas said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and NHAI officials had on multiple occasions acknowledged the state government’s cooperation in implementing the highway expansion. He also questioned the inclusion of BJP state president Rajeev Chandrashekhar in the programme while the state’s PWD minister was not invited.

Meanwhile, Minister M B Rajesh said he became aware of his name being included in the event schedule only on Tuesday and had prior engagements in his constituency. He also recalled difficulties during a previous programme attended as a state government representative, alleging that security officials had asked him to produce identification despite holding a VIP pass.

General Education Minister V Sivankutty also criticised the alleged exclusion of Riyas, calling it politically motivated. He said it was surprising that representatives of the Kerala government were sidelined during the inauguration of a project for which the state had spent significant resources on land acquisition.

Sivankutty added that Kerala was among the first states where the government directly contributed funds for national highway development and accused the BJP of attempting to claim credit for a project implemented with the state’s support.

However, senior BJP leader B Gopalakrishnan rejected the allegations and accused the ruling CPI(M)-led government of boycotting the prime minister’s programme to consolidate Muslim votes ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.