Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was on Thursday denied an appointment to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Incidentally, this is the fourth time the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has refused to give an appointment to the CM of the southern state.
Refusing to give an appointment to CM Pinarayi Vijayan and an all-party delegation that sought to discuss the disparities in ration allocation to the state, the PMO reportedly directed them to meet Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan if needed.
However, sources in CMO told TNM that Pinarayi Vijayan will not meet Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
"The appointment was sought to meet the Prime Minister, not Ram Vilas Paswan. CM will not agree for this," the source maintained.
According to the CMO, they had sought an appointment on June 16 and June 21, both of which were turned down by the PMO. The PMO had previously , refused to meet a delegation from Kerala. While the first one was on November 24, 2016, when the CM sought to discuss the central government declaration of demonetisation, the second time was in March last year, when Pinarayi wanted to meet PM Narendra Modi to speak about the budget allocation to Kerala.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and other ministers of the LDF government has been vocal about their objections with regard to a number of policies by the BJP government, be it the restrictions in cattle trade or the fuel price hike. Quite recently, Pinarayi extended his support to the dharna carried out by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal against the Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.
The latest instance come just a week after Pinarayi Vijayan wrote a letter to PM Narendra Modi, seeking intervention in the tussle between Delhi Government and Lieutenant Governor’s office. This, after Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu and Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy met in Delhi to extend their support to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who was protesting against the Lt Governor.