After a resounding win in the recently concluded bye-election, Chandy Oommen took oath as the MLA for the Puthuppally Assembly constituency in Kerala’s Kottayam district, taking over the baton from his late father and former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy, who had been representing the constituency for a record 53 years. Amid claps and cheers, Chandy Oommen walked into Kerala Legislative Assembly on Monday, September 11, where he was officially sworn in as a legislator. The 37-year-old leader, a first time MLA, won the bye-election on September 8 after defeating Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M)’s Jaick C Thomas by an unprecedented margin of 37,719 votes. 

Around 10 am at the Legislative Assembly, Chandy Oommen took the oath in the name of god and signed in the register, before greeting Speaker AN Shamseer and shaking hands with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and all those seated in the front row of the house. Before arriving at the Assembly, he had also visited the local church, a temple and a mosque, prayed before his father Oommen Chandy’s picture at his house, and received his mother’s blessing. On Sunday, he offered ‘thulabharam’ at the Chenkal Maheshwaram Shiva Parvathi temple.

Chandy’s first speech is also expected to happen on Monday with the Assembly having decided to take up the adjournment motion moved by the Congress-led opposition United Democratic Front (UDF), regarding the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s exoneration of Oommen Chandy in the infamous solar scam sexual assault case. CBI’s closure report, the details of which were revealed on Sunday, has given the Congress huge ammunition to take on the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. In its report, the CBI has reportedly claimed that a few leaders connected to the LDF had hatched a conspiracy to frame the late Congress veteran in the case.

The report is in connection with a sexual assault charge against Oommen Chandy and other Congress leaders, which was registered on the basis of a complaint by the prime accused in the solar scam. She had complained to the police that Chandy, in his capacity as CM while the UDF was in power, had sexually assaulted her promising to sanction her contracts for solar installations in the state. The CBI report which gave a clean chit to the two-time Kerala CM was recently accepted by the Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial Magistrate Court.

The bye-election in Puthuppally, which took place on September 5, was necessitated by Oommen Chandy’s demise on July 18 following a prolonged battle with cancer. Despite the Left’s ardent campaign focused on the constituency’s development, Puthuppally gave an overwhelming mandate in favour of Chandy Oommen.

With inputs from IANS