While Kerala Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar, an ally of the CPI(M)-led LDF, got a reprieve Tuesday, when his wife Bindu Menon declared that she will not push ahead with her complaint against him for his alleged infidelity, the row has opened a new front in the battle between the LDF and the Opposition Congress-led UDF in the run-up to the state Assembly elections.
In a jolt to the LDF, Menon had on Monday accused Kumar of infidelity, claiming that she caught him “red-handed” with another woman at their house last Saturday. She also alleged that the minister’s aides manhandled her and stopped police from entering the house after she had made a distress call to them.
Seizing on the row, the Congress demanded the minister’s resignation, asking Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to remove him from his Cabinet.
On Tuesday, Menon said she would not press her complaint against her husband as he has “apologised to her”. She told the media Kumar had called her last night to tender an apology.
The minister reached out to his estranged wife even as pressure was mounting on CM Vijayan to take action against him. A five-time MLA, Kumar is the chairman of the Kerala Congress (B) – a splinter group of the regional party Kerala Congress – which his father late R Balakrishna Pillai had founded.
After the Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Kumar said, “Don’t expect that I will quit. This Cabinet’s term will be over in a few days. People love me. Certain people thought I would resign today. It is not going to happen.”
Congress sharpens attack
The Congress however stuck to its stance, demanding the sacking of the minister. Stepping up his attack on Vijayan, senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, V D Satheesan, highlighted how former Congress CM late Oommen Chandy had dropped Ganesh Kumar from his Cabinet in 2013 following similar allegations against him. Kumar, who was part of the UDF, was forced to step down as minister after his then wife Yamini Thankachi accused him of “domestic violence”. Vijayan, then CPI(M) state secretary, had demanded that Chandy should axe Kumar from his ministry.
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Kumar got married to Menon in 2014 after legally separating from Thankachi.
Menon said Monday that there had been issues in their family life over the years due to Kumar’s relationship with several women.
Kumar dismissed such allegations as “politically motivated” and part of the Congress’s “stunt” on the eve of the elections. Speaking to the media, he quipped that he has had “5,000 love affairs”. “Anyone in a state of madness can contact the police. No one should interfere in my personal matters. I am a good public representative and MLA, standing with poor people, free of corruption and communalism. My life is an open book, and if you want to know about love, I will explain it later.”
Satheesan alleged that the incident indicated “denial of justice” to women under the LDF dispensation. “Police cannot ensure justice for the wife of a minister. Why did the police go back without recording her statement or probing whether she was manhandled or not? The CM should give answers to the people of the state,” he said.
Ganesh Kumar’s rise
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Kumar, 59, also a film actor, has been representing the Pathanapuram Assembly seat since 2001. His Kerala Congress (B) had been a constituent of the UDF for several years. After his win in his debut election in 2001, he was inducted into the UDF Cabinet. In 2011, when the UDF returned to power, he was appointed as the forest minister.
He switched to the LDF before the 2016 Assembly elections and won from Pathanapuram again. In 2021, he bagged his seat for the fifth consecutive term, with Vijayan inducting him into his ministry in 2023.
In 2023, however, the CBI, which probed into the alleged solar scam against the previous Congress government, hinted at a political conspiracy behind raising sexual abuse allegation against Chandy, and pointed to Kumar’s alleged role in it.
‘Double standards’ charge
The Congress said the Kumar row has exposed the LDF’s “double standards” over complaints related to atrocities against women.
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Congress leaders said when their party MLA Rahul Mamkootathil faced allegations of sexual misconduct last August, the police had registered a criminal case against him based on the complaint from political activists even though victims did not come forward with it. “When Mamkootathil was arrested in January, CPI(M) social media handles had made viral a photo of Vijayan holding a mug with an inscription, which was projected as a show of his support for a rape survivor,’’they said.
The Congress camp also alleged that when a filmmaker filed a sexual harassment complaint against former Left MLA and director P T Kunju Muhammed last November, the Chief Minister’s Office did not act upon it for more than two weeks. The FIR was registered only days after the local body elections were over.
Satheesan said the police should register a case against Kumar, maintaining that “serious offence has taken place in the matter”. Taking a dig at Vijayan, Satheesan said, “He should not come to public with that mug again. We are going to use that photo for our election campaign. People are now aware of the contrast between words and deeds of the CPI(M),’’ he added.