THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was around 12 noon on August 4, 2011. Excise Minister K Babu got a call from the chief minister's office land line asking him to rush to his chamber immediately.
Babu who was known to be a close confidante of the then chief minister Oommen Chandy, headed straight to the chamber. To his shock and surprise, the minister found a man sitting on the CM's chair and dialing from his official land line.
Hey ! who are you ? asked the minister sternly. Pat came the reply from the intruder; "I am the prime minister." Since the chief minister's office was on live webcast at that time, a person from the Gulf rang up Chandy and informed him that a stranger had occupied his official chair.
The chief minister also rushed to his chamber and found the man, identified as Chela Chandra Jose, 40, a native of the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram, merrily sitting on his chair. He immediately directed his staff and security personnel not to harm the person and not to treat it as a security breach at all.
Oommen Chandy's office was usually more crowded than a railway platform as there were no restrictions on the visitors who were mainly from the poor sections of society. The accessibility was such that anyone could pull his shirt and hand over a memorandum in the corridor. That was his style of functioning - always among the people, one among the masses."
"Crowds have never been a problem for me. It’s not an issue at all. I have grown up amid crowds, it’s a habit. This is my style of functioning," he often used to say. However, this style of functioning landed him in serious trouble later. Many unwanted elements gained access to the chief minister’s office and his personal staff for their ulterior motives. Later the infamous solar case came up to haunt Chandy.
A 24/7 CM
Jana Samparka Paripadi or Mass Contact Programme
Oommen Chandy broke all records during the mass contact programmes he held as chief minister during the initial phase of his 2011-16 tenure. He used to spend over 15 to 20 hours at a stretch at a venue, most of the time standing amidst people, hearing out their pleas , accepting their petitions. "We used to wonder how a man can spend so many hours without food and that too working without a break. Party workers and officials used to forcibly feed him tender coconut water. He used to directly engage with people, a majority of them belonging to the socially and financially backward sections,” recollected senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Adoor Prakash. His efforts went on to attract international recognition. In 2013, Chandy was bestowed with the United National Public Service Award for his popular mass contact programme.
Architect of major development projects
Oommen Chandy was the architect of Kerala's biggest infrastructure projects including Kochi Metro, Vizhinjam International Seaport -Transhipment Terminal, Kannur International Airport, Kochi-Mangalore GAIL pipeline. Most of these projects were taken forward by the successive LDF governments and implemented thus maintaining continuity in infrastructure and development projects.
