Kerala's Public Works Minister T U Kuruvila quit on Monday over allegations of a land scam involving his kin, less than a year after he became a minister by default.

Kuruvila belongs to the four-MLA Kerala Congress (Joseph) party, and was pitch forked into the Cabinet after his party chairman P J Joseph, who preceded him in office, was felled by another scandal. Joseph was alleged to have molested a woman co-passenger, a former TV anchor, on board a domestic flight.

Amid the clamour for Joseph’s prosecution, the Left Government had deftly announced a judicial probe, declaring action would depend on the probe findings. This was after a senior woman IPS officer who was ordered to probe the charge, ironically at the specific instance of Joseph himself, reported him guilty. However, there is no sign of the judicial inquiry even a year after it was announced, though the police in Chennai are said to be investigating the complaint that his Chennai-based victim made.

Kuruvila, who had invited heavy flak for his failure to do anything substantial while in office, was famously the richest minister in the Left Cabinet who made his declared crores from timber and other big business operations.

But Kuruvila getting out hasn’t yet pulled the curtain on the drama. Joseph is making no bones that he is angling for a comeback to office, though this idea has run into open opposition from the CPM. Joseph himself had declared on Sunday that the “overwhelming feeling” in his party now is that he should not refuse to take up the burden of ministership at this juncture. His party leaders have gone on record that they are exploring options to “speed up” the probe into the molestation charge by the Chennai Police, which, they claim, is sure to exonerate him.

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