Congress MLA Kuzhalnadan claims new audio evidence proves LDF govt was responsible for 2018 Kuttanad floods in Kerala

Congress leader Mathew Kuzhalnadan, MLA, on Tuesday (April 7, 2026) sought to breathe new life into the politically stormy accusation that the then Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s “corruption-driven wilful delay” in opening the shutters of the Thottappally spillway in Alappuzha had caused the devastating floods that laid Kuttanad, Kerala’s rice bowl, to waste in 2018.

Mr. Kuzhalnadan told a press conference in Ernakulam that he had recently obtained incriminating audio evidence of the then Water Resources Minister K. Krishnankutty, currently the Minister for Electricty, admitting to a party colleague on the phone that “official bungling and corruption” had caused the disaster, which destroyed houses, displaced hundreds of families and washed away large swaths of paddy in Alappuzha district.

Mr. Kuzhalnadan alleged that Mr. Krishnankutty said the executive engineer had recommended opening the spillway’s shutters early as the rain intensified. However, he alleged, “a host of ruling-front political interests” prevented the government from opening the shutter to preserve the sandbank downstream. 

Mr. Kuzhalnadan alleged that the government had contracted a businessperson to mine the sand deposit for ₹62 per cubic metre. In 2018, a cubic metre of river sand fetched ₹2,000 in the open market, given the big demand in the construction industry for the finite resource. Mr. Kuzhalnadan accused the LDF of later “covering up the decision, sacrificing the lives and livelihoods of the people of Kuttanad on the altar of corruption.”

He also alleged that the government further “exacerbated” the flood situation by diverting water intended for Tamil Nadu to the Peringalkuthu dam in Thrissur district at the behest of businesspersons involved in private power generation. 

UDF reviving discredited lies: Pinarayi

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters in Kannur that the UDF was “resurrecting discredited lies” that had informed the Opposition’s campaign in 2021.

“Several independent expert committees had debunked the UDF’s falsehood. The government did not cause the flooding. Unprecedented rainfall, catalysed by climate change, did. The desperation of impending defeat (in Assembly elections) has prompted the Congress to broadcast old lies”, he said.

Mr. Vijayan said questions about the “misappropriation of funds” collected from the public ostensibly for Wayanad rehabilitation had driven the Congress leadership to the wall, and party leaders were scrambling to divert voters’ attention from the UDF’s “moral collapse and financial shenanigans by lying.” 

Krishnankutty denies charges

Meanwhile, Mr. Krishnankutty, quoting 2018 Assembly replies to questions regarding the flooding raised by the UDF, dismissed Mr. Kuzhalnadan’s accusations as a “last-minute election campaign stunt prompted by disheartenment.”