The speech of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the end of a no-confidence discussion moved in the assembly on Monday, lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes. The motion was defeated 87 to 40 votes at the end of the assembly session, which was limited to a single day considering the COVID-19 situation.
While Mathrubhumi reports this is the longest speech 'in the history of Kerala assembly’, Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan had said during interruptions by Opposition members that a longer speech was delivered by the former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy - for five and a half hours.
When CM Pinarayi's speech began to exceed three hours, members of the Opposition came out of their seats and protested, calling him names and raising slogans. After a brief pause however, the CM went on with his speech till it was past 9 pm. The voting took place after that.
The Chief Minister, in his speech, read out a progress report of the achievements made by the government in the past four years, from the prestigious Life mission to build homes for the poor, to the Haritha Keralam mission for the environment, and various welfare measures. He also replied to the various allegations raised by the Opposition that moved the no-confidence motion earlier in the day. From the controversial gold smuggling case to issues in the Life mission and Minister KT Jaleel’s conduct, the Opposition had raised a number of charges against the government.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala had at one point interrupted the CM’s long speech to say that it was not advisable to spend so much time in the assembly during a pandemic and everyone would be at risk of the disease spreading. When the session was over, he held a press conference to say that the CM's answers were not satisfactory.
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