A turbulent session seems to be on the cards when the Kerala Legislative Assembly convenes on Monday.
Congress outrage provoked by the Students Federation of India (SFI) attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi MP's office at Kalpetta in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency is likely to rock the House.
The Congress has linked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's office to the widely condemned act of wanton violence.
It has portrayed the attack as a political gambit to deflect public attention from the gold smuggling scandal that had arguably cast Mr. Vijayan's integrity in "doubt".
Notably, the question hour on Monday is replete with queries to Mr. Vijayan about the allegations levelled against him and his family by the gold case accused Swapna Suresh.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) seems resolved to stand up to the alleged Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) conspiracy to resurrect discredited old lies to denigrate the ruling front. It has termed the scandal an RSS-backed scurrilous attack on Mr. Vijayan's probity.
The LDF will likely adopt a forceful floor strategy to defend Mr. Vijayan. It can argue that the Centre's gold case probe had ended in a blind alley.
The Congress might counter the claim by stating that the high-profile investigation had meandered to a halt because of a trade-off between the BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition has repeatedly alleged that the State government had scuttled the ‘Kodakara hawala heist case’ against BJP leaders to get Mr. Vijayan off the hook.
The ruling front also seemed poised to weaponise the alleged Youth Congress bid on Mr. Vijayan's life on board an aircraft to target the Opposition.
In turn, the UDF can lean on the thumping victory in the Thrikkakara Assembly byelection to justify its resistance to the K-Rail project.
The session has two novelties. One, it marks the inaugural of Uma Thomas, wife of the late Congress leader P.T. Thomas, as Thrikkakara MLA. Monday also marks the first anniversary of the 15th Kerala Assembly.
The session also scrutinises several bills, and the ruling front can rest assured that it has the votes to win their passage.
