For the Pinarayi Vijayan Government in Kerala, the New Year appears to have started on a sour note with the newly-inducted State Transport Minister KB Ganesh Kumar, slamming outgoing Minister Antony Raju. While Ganesh belongs to the Kerala Congress (B), Antony belongs to the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, both allies of the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) which heads the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).

Antony vacated the post of Transport Minister for Ganesh as part of LDF's agreement that after 30 months, ally parties with a single legislator would vacate posts for other parties with just one legislator. Thus, Ganesh was sworn in on Friday, December 29, along with Kadannappalli Ramachandran of the Congress (S).

Soon after, however, Ganesh slammed Antony and the way the State Transport Department was run so far. Not only did he lash out at the outgoing Minister, he also gave orders to cancel the transfer orders issued in the department last week just before Antony stepped down.

Antony too hit back quickly at Ganesh, expressing his displeasure. But on the advice of the CPI(M) brass, Ganesh did not respond to his comments.

Meanwhile, Antony and his party have decided to raise this issue at the next Left Front meeting and have already written to its convenor regarding Ganesh's actions.