Sanjay Seth, the Minister of State for Defence, was meeting with NCC cadets in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. During the interaction, Seth said that he was an NCC cadet in school and had always wanted to serve in the Indian Army, but was unable to do so.
Seth went on to say that he still feels bad about not being able to serve his nation by entering the army
In the New Year, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, no longer the PCC president or CLP leader, was invited to be the chief guest at three major community events: the Mannan Jayathi event of the Nair Service Society, the Vaikom Sivagiri Theerthadanamyatra of the SNDP, and the Jami'a Nooriyya conference. This has fuelled suspicion of a substantial pre-election churning, four years after Chennithala was eased out of the CLP leadership.