rediff.com: Balakrishna Pillai not to join Kerala ministry


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Balakrishna Pillai not to join ministry

Kerala Congress (B) chairman, R Balakrishna Pillai, who was convicted in a corruption case, has decided not to join the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government, leaving his party's ministerial berth to his actor-son, Ganesh Kumar.

Pillai told reporters that the decision was his own and neither the Front nor the Congress had demanded it.

In his place, Ganesh Kumar would be the Kerala Congress (B) nominee for ministership, he said.

Stating that he had the 'people's mandate', Pillai said he wanted to set a new democratic tradition. "There was nothing legally or morally wrong that barred me from joining the ministry," he said.

Pillai said will continue to be Kerala Congress (B) legislature leader and its chairman.

Earlier, the party elected Pillai as the legislature party leader and Ganesh Kumar as chief whip and secretary.

Pillai was convicted in the graphite case involving illegal sale of power to a Karnataka firm between June 1985 and April 1986. He was jailed for one week in March last after the Kerala High Court confirmed the sentence passed by a special vigilance court in Trivandrum.

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