Kerala floods: Vijayan cancels US trip for treatment
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 18 : In view of the grave situation in Kerala due to floods, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has call off his proposed trip to the US for medical treatment, an official said on Saturday.
Vijayan was scheduled to leave for Mayo Clinic in the USA on Sunday.
Since May 29, rains and floods and have claimed 357 lives in the state, and over 3.53 lakh people are living in over 2,000 relief camps. Vijayan is on a daily basis engaged in numerous meetings coordinating the operations.
According to the Chief Minister's travel programme, which was confirmed after he returned from the US last month, he along with his wife was to leave on Sunday for the treatment of an undisclosed ailment, and was scheduled to return after 17 days.
It is, however, not known if his trip has been deferred or cancelled altogether.
During his trip to the US last month, after attending two functions, he had gone out of the radar and it was only after he returned a week later that the news surfaced that he will be going for further treatment.
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Cong performed better in Kerala, anti-incumbency trends influenced WB, TN: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said the Congress had largely met or exceeded expectations in several States, even as results in some regions reflected shifting voter sentiments.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said the party accepted the mandate in Assam while performing better than anticipated in Kerala.
He also pointed to possible anti-incumbency trends influencing outcomes in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
“In Assam, we got the expected result, and we accept the people’s mandate. In Kerala, we have won more seats than expected. We anticipated around 76 to 80, but we have gone up to around 95,” Siddaramaiah said.
In West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, there may have been an anti-incumbency trend, and that could have influenced the results, he added.
Siddaramaiah also extended his congratulations to a new political entrant in Tamil Nadu, noting the emergence of a different electoral dynamic in the State.
“I congratulate the new entrant who has achieved success there,” he added.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said electoral outcomes in some States had diverged from the party’s internal assessments, reflecting evolving voter expectations.
“We expected a certain trend, but the results have been different. Political reading was wrong in some places,” he said.
“People were looking for change in some States, and that has been reflected in the results,” Shivakumar, who is also the Congress Karnataka unit president, said.
Referring to Kerala, he said the Congress-led alliance had benefited from public sentiment.
“There was already an expectation based on local body elections, and people had shown confidence in us. That has translated into a strong result,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.
On Tamil Nadu, he acknowledged that the scale of political shift had come as a surprise.
“We expected to secure around 30 to 40 per cent of the vote share, but such a major shift was not anticipated. It shows that voter expectations were different,” he said.
Shivakumar added that electoral outcomes underscored the need for better political assessment in future.
“We have to understand these changes carefully. Political reading cannot go wrong like this,” he said.
