Mangalam TV honey trap case: Saseendran gets ahead of Thomas Chandy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the chief judicial magistrate court scrapping the case against A.K. Saseendran, decks have been cleared for his return to LDF ministry.

NCP state president T.P. Peethambaran told media persons that Mr Saseendran's name will have to be proposed by central leadership for the Cabinet berth. Once the central leadership proposes his name, the state NCP will submit a formal letter to Chief Minister requesting him to induct Mr Saseendran in the ministry, he added.

However, it is just a formality as the party had announced earlier that Mr Sassendran would be made minister again once he is cleared of all charges.

Mr Saseendran said he was happy over the court verdict. "Our leadership is competent to take the right decision, particularly the national president Sharad Pawar and state president Peethambaran master. We have always abided by their decisions and directions. It will be so in future as well," he said.

The party leadership had reiterated that the first right to the Cabinet berth would be of Mr Saseendran as and when he is cleared of the charges. Even Thomas Chandy who was sworn in on April 1, 2017, had made it clear that he would quit the moment Mr Saseendran comes clean on the charges.

However, Mr Chandy was forced to quit on November 15 on the charges of reclaiming paddy field and lake.  Since then the Cabinet slot of the party was lying vacant. With pressure mounting from CPM to fill up the vacant slot, NCP state leadership explored several possibilities including merger with Kerala Congress (B) of R. Balakrishna Pillai and RSP (L) led by Kovoor Kujumon, MLA. A section of NCP leaders even came out with a proposal of merger with RSP (L) to grant Cabinet berth to Mr Kujumon. However, the move led to serious differences in both the parties with the RSP (L) finally abandoning the decision to merge with NCP.