Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala suffered a major embarrassment on Wednesday, as it was forced to freeze the PM SHRI scheme due to CPI(M)'s objection, Vijayan has exhibited his political shrewdness by shifting the focus to a slew of sops that he announced.

As the local body and assembly elections in Kerala are approaching it is quite certain that the Pinarayi government will announce sops as part of its ongoing efforts to script a hattrick victory in the 2026 assembly elections. It was widely anticipated that the sops will be announced at the special session of state assembly to be held on November 1 marking the state formation day anniversary.

Hence it came as a surprise when Vijayan rolled out the welfare measures, that too targeting all key section

See Full Page