Kerala Congress(B) chairman R Balakrishna Pillai, a former partner in Congress led ruling UDF, today levelled charges of corruption against two ministers in the UDF Ministry and demanded a probe by the Vigilance and anti-corruption Department.
In his complaint to the Vigilance and Anti corruption director, he alleged that Kerala Congress(M) supremo and Finance Minister K M Mani had accepted bribe from bakery and quarry owners and rice merchants.
The charge against Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob relate to alleged irregularities in appointing members in Consumerfed (Kerala state cooperative Consumers Federation Ltd).
Pillai attached a copy of the letter he had written to the CM on September 27 2014, raising the same matter.
Eighty-year-old Pillai was a former minister who was imprisoned in a corruption case in 2011.
Kerala Congress (B), a minor partner of UDF, had on March 11 decided to snap its decade long association with the front following sharp differences with the leadership.
Former minister K B Ganesh Kumar is the lone KC(B) MLA in the assembly. He was forced to resign from the ministry in 2013 after facing allegations of domestic rift.
Relationship of KC-B with UDF had soured after Kumar levelled corruption charges against PWD ministry headed by V K Ebrahim Kunju of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).
The rift had widened recently after Pillai made charges against Finance Minister K M Mani in the bar bribe scam, following which the front had removed Kumar from the UDF Parliamentary Party.
Meanwhile, joining the issue, CPI today demanded a probe into Pillai's charges, holding that these had only vindicated what the CPI(M) led LDF opposition had been saying.
CPI State Secretary Kannam Rajendran demanded that the government probe the allegations raised by the KC-B leader, who was also a founder leader of UDF.
