Kochi

Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, and several state ministers stayed away from an official programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, following the alleged exclusion of state Public Works Department (PWD) Minister P. A. Mohammed Riyas from the event.

The prime minister was scheduled to inaugurate multiple development projects in Kochi, including stretches of the six-lane expansion of National Highway 66, during a function held around 12.30 pm.

The projects included the Thalappady–Chengala stretch of NH 66 and the Vengalam–Ramanattukara section of the Kozhikode bypass, both upgraded to six lanes.

According to government sources, Vijayan decided not to attend the programme despite his name appearing in the event schedule. No specific reason was officially cited for his absence.

State ministers M. B. Rajesh and K. Krishnankutty, who were also invited to the programme, said they would not participate, citing personal reasons.

Reacting to the development, Riyas said he had not received any official communication inviting him to the event and described the move as “political” and “not befitting a democracy”.

He said previous PWD ministers in the state had always been invited to the inauguration of such projects and that excluding the current minister would not change public awareness of the state government’s role.

Riyas said the Kerala government had played a major role in the national highway development by facilitating land acquisition and sharing funds.

According to him, the highway development project in the state was revived only after the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to power in 2016, following the intervention of Chief Minister Vijayan.

The minister claimed that the project had earlier been abandoned and that the National Highways Authority of India had even closed its related office before the state government pushed for its revival.

He also said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and NHAI officials had on several occasions appreciated the coordination led by the chief minister and the state PWD.

Riyas also criticised the inclusion of Rajeev Chandrasekhar, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala, in the event, questioning why a party leader was invited while the state PWD minister was not.

Meanwhile, Rajesh said he learned only on Tuesday that his name had been included in the programme and had prior engagements in his constituency.

He also recalled a previous experience while attending a programme of the prime minister in Thiruvananthapuram, alleging that security personnel from the Special Protection Group had asked him to show his Aadhaar card despite possessing a VIP pass approved by the Prime Minister’s Office.

State General Education Minister V. Sivankutty termed the alleged exclusion of Riyas as “shocking” and politically motivated, saying representatives of the Kerala government were deliberately sidelined despite the state spending significant funds on land acquisition for the highway project.

He added that Kerala was the first state in the country where the state government directly spent money for national highway development.

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However, senior BJP leader B. Gopalakrishnan alleged that the state government and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were trying to consolidate Muslim votes ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections by boycotting the prime minister’s event.