Keralam

23 Mar 2011

The state government will not approve parole for campaigning for former state minister and Kerala Congress (B) leader R Balakrishna Pillai in the April 13 polls to the Kerala assembly. The law does not allow to grant him parole for campaigning, he said. Pillai had applied for parole citing illness of his wife. Throwing a surprise, the Steering Committee of KC (B), a partner in the UDF, decided to field Pillai in his pocket borough Kottarakkara in Kollam district. Reacting to the news, Kodiyeri said that, the opposition leader and senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy should clarify on the Pillai issue. Chandy himself had said that he will not contest if he is  made an accued in the palmolein case.
Pillai, 77, was lodged in the Central Prison in Thiruvananthapuram a month back after the Supreme Court sentenced him to one year imprisonment in the Edmalayalar corruption case. The case pertained to alleged corruption in awarding contract for construction of tunnel and surge shaft of the Edamalayar Hydro Electric project in 1980s, when he was electricity minister in the UDF government headed by late K Karunakaran.

Pillai was elected to the Kerala Assembly as many as eight times but was defeated last time by Aysha Potti of the CPM. He also elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971 but returned to the state politics as a minister in the C Achutha Menon Government in 1975. Potti has been re-nominted by her party in the segment.