UDF convener Adoor Prakash echoes CPI(M) charge that Satheesan’s style of functioning jeopardises Cabinet’s collective responsibility

United Democratic Front (UDF) convener Adoor Prakash, MP, appears to have inadvertently found himself on the same page as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], signalling that Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s alleged tendency to concentrate power in his office has significantly jeopardised the collective responsibility of the Keralam Cabinet..

Mr. Prakash told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday that “evidence of collective responsibility is trickling out into the open.” When asked whether UDF Ministers were disgruntled that the CMO blindsided him on key governance matters, Mr. Prakash quipped: “You should ask the Cabinet Ministers.”

Mr. Prakash’s statement assumed political significance against the backdrop of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and Power Minister Sunny Joseph publicly airing displeasure of he having to learn the controversial and now revoked power purchase deal with GNA Energy, a private sector entity, through the media.

Mr. Prakash’s statement came hours before CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan told a press conference that Mr. Satheesan had significantly undermined the constitutional principle of the Council of Ministers’ collective responsibility by concentrating power in a “shadowy coterie representing questionable private interests centred on the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

Mr. Govindan also singled out at least three Ministers, including Mr Joseph, Excise Minister M. Liju, and Health Minister K. Muraleedharan, whom he claimed had expressed resentment that Mr Satheesan’s office blindsided them in policy and administrative matters.

Mr. Govindan also said Mr. Liju had learned of the issuance of multiple bar licenses through the media. He also claimed that Mr. Muraleedharan had felt superseded by the CMO in administrative decisions.

When asked whether the UDF had convened to deliberate on key policy decisions, including the new excise policy for the 2026-27 fiscal year, changes to higher education, including the contentious decision to allow autonomous colleges free rein to start new courses, and the division of out boards and corporation chairpersons among ruling front partners, Mr. Prakash stated: “The convening of UDF meetings is the sole prerogative of the UDF chairperson (Mr. Satheesan).”

When asked whether his complaint to the All India Congress Committee about Mr. Satheesan’s alleged attempt to “emasculate the ruling alliance by taking decisions without consultation between allies or arriving at a consensus” had fallen on deaf ears, Mr. Prakash said: “I stick by my publicly stated position concerning UDF meetings.”

In October, Mr. Prakash had signalled a rift with Mr. Satheesan by publicly airing grievances about a “lack of consultation in the UDF, including purported arbitrariness and opaqueness in key decision-making, including political appointments and broad policy-making at the level of the Chief Minister’s Office.