Pinarayi Vijayan disputes Kerala CM's claim of 787 personal staff under LDF
Pinarayi Vijayan rejects Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan's allegation that the previous LDF government appointed 787 personal staff, saying records show the figure stayed below 500.
Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan has rejected Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan's allegation that the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government appointed 787 personal staff, describing the claim as factually incorrect.
In a statement, Mr. Vijayan said it was highly inappropriate for the Chief Minister to misrepresent a matter for which clear records existed. He demanded that Mr. Satheesan make public the list of 787 individuals he had referred to.
Citing staffing patterns from the previous Cabinet, Mr. Vijayan said the Chief Minister's office then had a personal staff of 32, while other Ministers had 25 or fewer. He noted that over the five-year term, four Ministers — M.V. Govindan, K. Radhakrishnan, Ahmed Devarkovil and Antony Raju — were replaced, and Saji Cherian resigned and later resumed office. Despite these changes, he said, the total staff strength was not increased and remained below 500.
Mr. Vijayan asked where the Chief Minister had obtained the figure of 787 when precise records were available, and reiterated that the list should be published.