UDF faces criticism over Ministers’ alleged foreign junkets, Keralam CM’s private plane travel

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Keralam appeared buffeted on Tuesday by accusations that at least a few of its ministers showed a brazen willingness to accept junkets from vested interests seeking proximity to power. 

At the heart of the controversy is Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s alleged lack of transparency in chartering a private plane to travel to the flood-affected regions in Malappuram on Monday. 

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretariat member P. Rajeeve told reporters in Kochi that UDF Ministers have signalled to the electorate that ordinary citizens without resources are at a disadvantage when compared to the moneyed elite doling out freebies and foreign jaunts to “power centres and authority figures.”

‘Like Roman emperor Nero’

“Some Ministers are behaving like Roman emperor Nero”, Mr Rajeeve said.

He noted that Mr Satheesan had not yet disclosed who sponsored the then Chief Minister designate’s chartered flight to Mangaluru in Karnataka on the eve of the UDF government’s swearing-in in May 2026. “The trip’s purpose remains shrouded in secrecy even as Mr Satheesan refuses to divulge who financed his air dash to flood-hit regions in Malappuram (recently)”, Mr Rajeeve said. 

Mr Rajeeve’s comment came against the background of Sports Minister O J Janeesh attempting to dismiss his overseas trip by stating that those holding elected office were entitled to “private time and occasional breaks” from the rigmarole of governance. Mr Janeesh had also claimed that his foreign trip did not compromise his official duties or cost the public exchequer. 

Mr Rajeeve said Ministers in the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government travelled for “public purposes, not leisure”, at the expense of anonymous benefactors. 

The CPI(M) had also alleged suspicious ambiguity surrounding Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala’s recent US trip.

Mr Chennithala later clarified that he had gone to the US to partake in the wedding of the son of a former functionary of Jai Hind TV, a Congress-controlled news outlet. He said the hosts sponsored his entire trip.

Last week, the CPI(M) had pivoted against Local Self-Government Minister K.M. Shaji for using a luxury sports utility vehicle, purportedly loaned by a Saudi Arabia-based businessperson friend of his, for official travel, alleging unknown quid pro quos.

Mr Shaji later returned the car and said the suspect roadworthiness of the government car assigned to him had impelled him to borrow his friend’s vehicle. 

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and Power Minister Sunny Joseph fielded questions about why Mr Satheesan, as Opposition Leader, had called for transparency and public accountability from LDF Ministers travelling abroad. “Mr Satheesan will make a formal statement soon”, he said. He called CPI(M) allegations against other UDF ministers “petty nitpicking”.