' The minister is shameless...': PC George against FM KN Balagopal on Kerala Budget

PC George joined the Bharatiya Janata Party after reaching the BJP headquarters in Delhi on January 31. PC George's Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) has also merged with the BJP.

Pathanamthitta: BJP leader PC George insulted Finance Minister KN Balagopal on the Kerala budget. PC George stated, " The minister is shameless.". He was speaking during the padayatra led by BJP State President K. Surendran at Adoor.

He continued by saying that" A budget or B budget should be provided if given money. What a shameless minister is he? I would like to tell the minister one thing: the problems of the agriculture sector have continued for the past many years. During the tenure of KM Mani, the floor price of rubber was announced for rubber farmers at Rs 170. In this budget, the minister added Rs 10. Let him give it to his father. In the last assembly election, they wrote in the election paper that they could give a support price of Rs 250 and after two and a half years after winning the vote of the people, they said that they would increase it by Rs 10."

PC George joined the Bharatiya Janata Party after reaching the BJP headquarters in Delhi on January 31. PC George's Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) has also merged with the BJP. Union Ministers Rajeev Chandrasekhar, V Muraleedharan, Prakash Javadekar, and Anil Antony were also present at the headquarters.

George, who had a 30-year tenure as a legislator, founded Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) in 2019 after dissolving his previous party. Although Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) joined the NDA in 2019, George later distanced himself from the BJP-led coalition. In the 2021 assembly elections, George ran as an independent candidate but faced defeat in the Poonjar constituency, marking the first time in 25 years that he did not secure victory.

Amid speculation that he might contest from the Pathanamthitta constituency as an NDA candidate in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, George hinted at a possible merger with the BJP. George has encountered political hurdles since his expulsion from the Kerala Congress (M) in 2015 for engaging in anti-party activities.