KC Venugopal | Photo credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP
The state government’s decision to renew the bar license during the election period is one of the biggest cases of corruption, said AICC general secretary KC Venugopal.
Typically, bar licenses are renewed every five years. However, according to media reports, the state government went ahead with the renewal of bar licenses even as the classification process by the Union Tourism union was still going on, the Congress leader said.
Mr Venugopal alleged that bribes worth lakhs of rupees were collected from bar owners for renewal of licences. The renewal of the licenses was done in a very secretive manner without waiting for the completion of the classification process and without even publishing the details on the website. It’s an even bigger scam than the previous one, when bar opening hours were extended, he added.
He said the government was drowning the state in liquor and was bowing to all the demands made by the bar owners. Mr. Venugopal claimed that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) ran the biggest election campaign ever witnessed and that all this money was directly linked to the millions collected by the government from the bar owners.
CPI(M)-BJP ‘deal’
Mr. Venugopal called Pinarayi Vijayan a “compromised Chief Minister” and claimed that a close examination of the CPI(M) and BJP’s candidate lists would reveal that there was a clear undercurrent or mutual understanding between the two to help each other during the elections.
He claimed that Mr Vijayan was beholden to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he lived in constant terror from the ED and therefore would never have dared to go against the Centre.
The Congress president alleged that the CPI(M) had sensed electoral defeat and had now entered into an unethical political understanding with the BJP, willingly fielding weak candidates in many constituencies to enable the BJP to win. The BJP returned the favor and struck a “deal”, he said.
Mr. Venugopal said that it was clear from Mr. Vijayan’s intolerant answers to a question from an ordinary party worker and the terminology he used to refer to G. Sudhakaran, a senior leader who had defected from the party, that the Chief Minister had completely lost his mind. Instead of correcting their leader, CPI(M) leaders have now come together to defend the Chief Minister, he added.
He claimed that the election results this time in Alappuzha district will indicate a big shift and that the UDF will win more seats than expected.
Published – 24 March 2026 17:38 IST
