Thiruvananthapuram, August 08: The state committee of the ruling LDF today cleared the return of Kerala Congress-J leader P J Joseph to the cabinet following his acquittal in the case of misbehavior towards a woman passenger in a flight two years back.
Joseph had resigned his post in 2007 after coming under a cloud of allegations of misbehaving with a woman on a Chennai-Kochi flight.
Two months back, a court at Alandur in Chennai acquitted him of the charge, following which his party KC(J) decided to reinstate him in the cabinet.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, LDF Convenor Vaikom Viswan said the issue of allotting ministerial berths to minorallies Janata Dal(S) (Deve Gowda faction) and Congress-S would be finalised at the next meeting of the Front on August 14.
KC(J)’s present nominee in the cabinet in charge of Public Works Mons Joseph would resign to pave the way for Joseph.
In the event of LDF deciding to give cabinet berths to the Gowda faction and Congress-S, Jose Thettayil and Ramachandran Kadannappally would become ministers, Front sources said.
Viswan said today’s meeting urged the Centre to release50,000 tonnes of rice at APL rates to Kerala during the Onam season. The Front also demanded that the Centre to with draw the Food Security Act in its present form as it would”adversely affect” states like Kerala.
—Agencies