Kerala Assembly session to resume on February 23

The Budget session of the Kerala Assembly will resume on Monday amid the continuing row over the Sabarimala gold theft issue and the protests unleashed by the Congress-led Opposition against Health Minister Veena George in the wake of the “medical lapse” allegations against the Government Medical College Hospital, Alappuzha.

The Kerala Nativity Card Bill, which the Cabinet had approved last week, will be introduced in the House on Monday. The Bill seeks to empower the State government to issue Nativity Cards. The Kerala government proposal had grabbed headlines amid the citizenship debates triggered by the Election Commission (EC) of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.

The Opposition is also likely to play up the High Court decision quashing the State government order on the ‘Nava Kerala Citizen Response Programme,’ and the political debate kicked up by poet and Kerala Sahitya Akademi president K. Satchidanandan’s remarks on continuity of power. On the protests against Ms. George, the CPI(M) State secretariat had accused the Congress-led Opposition of trying to instigate riots in the State.

Further, the Assembly is reconvening after the EC had published the final post-SIR electoral roll which shows a reduction of 8.97 lakh voters when compared with the October 27, 2025 voter roll. Eleven districts in the State had recorded dips in voter numbers, according to the final roll.

The discussions and voting on the demands for grants in the State Budget for 2026-2027 will take place from Wednesday. Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal had presented the State Budget on January 29.