The sole BJP legislator in the Kerala assembly on Monday opposed the motion moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against the move to merge the State Bank of Travancore with State Bank of India, and as a result, the resolution passed by the house failed to be an unanimous one.
Barring O. Rajagopal, the entire house was united on the stand that this move was against the interest of the state and wanted the central government not to go ahead with the merger.
Rajagopal opposed the motion and termed the resolution as a political one, not financial.
"This is part of anti-Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) sentiments and I am opposing the resolution," he said.
Moving the resolution, Vijayan said SBT was formed way back in 1946 and was the succour of the Kerala government as a huge majority of its transactions was done through the bank.
"The move to merge SBT with SBI will be a telling blow to the interest of the state and will approach both the Reserve Bank of India and the Centre to desist from going ahead with the proposed merger," he said.
The majority union of SBT has already expressed deep concern in the move by the State Bank of India for the acquisition of its five associate banks including SBT.
--IANS
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