Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress -led-UDF in Kerala has slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as a weak leader and said that despite the hype Vijayan never “materialised into a strong leader”. Speaking to the media, Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said on Tuesday that the perception and hype created around Vijayan have fallen flat.  “In the seven months of his governance, it has been proven beyond doubt that Vijayan failed as a strong CM and the hype created has fallen flat,” Chennithala said.  “Now all of you (media) have to re-write all that you wrote about him when he was chosen to lead the state,” he said to the media persons.

Chennithala said whenever the United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Congress was in the opposition, they always gave the state government a “cooling period” to settle down and that period was around six months. “Now, it has been seven months since Vijayan took over and his administrative capability is appallingly poor,” the Congress leader said. “The Home Ministry that he handles has turned out to be an abject failure and the police are on a free run and it’s a virtual ‘Police Raj’ that’s prevailing.”

“Even the court has criticised the way the Vigilance Department is going about its role,” Chennithala said. Vijayan was expected to be a “strong CM”, as his tenure as the party secretary was “very successful”, according to CPI-M sources. Alluding to Vijayan’s governance skill, a senior state government official speaking on anonymity said: “The only previous administrative experience that he has, was way back in 1996 when he served as the state Power Minister.”

In 1997, Vijayan quit as the power minister and was appointed the party’s state secretary. He remained at the helm till 2015. “Running party cadres and a coalition government are totally different and the overall administration has suffered,” the official said. The UDF leadership meeting decided to organise a series of protests to highlight the failure of the Vijayan government.

The main failures of the Vijayan government listed by the opposition were in the handling of issues like demonetisation, ration supply, the poor condition of the state-owned transport corporation, and the looming drought situation in the state. “Starting the end of this week, we will be taking to the streets and on February 1, there will be four major rallies taken out to highlight the failures,” Chennithala added.