Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman alleged on Thursday, March 28, that Kerala’s fiscal stress is due to the poor governance of the state in the past years. Speaking after inaugurating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s Lok Sabha election convention in Thiruvananthapuram, the minister said that according to the Reserve Bank of India, Kerala was one of the five most financially stressed states in India. She alleged that this crisis was created by the state’s successive governments – the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).
In her speech, Nirmala Sitharaman accused the ruling LDF government of de-industrialising the state by pushing away investors. She specifically mentioned Kitex group, who went to Telangana to set up their new business after alleging that Kerala is not business friendly.
Nirmala also alleged that the Kerala government has exceeded its borrowing limit which is 3%, and had been resorting to extra-budgetary borrowing of Rs 42,285 crore for six years from 2016-17. She added that these borrowings were being made through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), which does not have its own revenue source. She also claimed that Kerala, along with Punjab, are the two states in the country to have developmental expenditure of less than 50%. “There is no more ‘Kerala Model’ now, it was only celebrated in the past,” she said.
The Union Finance Minister added that if Kerala gave an MP to BJP instead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will bring a miracle to the state.
Nirmala was campaigning for Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is the NDA candidate in Thiruvananthapuram for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Rajeev is pitted against UDF’s sitting Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor (Congress) and LDF’s Pannyan Raveendran (Communist Party of India). Kerala will go to polls on April 26, in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
