Pinarayi Vijayan opposes BPCL stake sale: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to retain Bharat Petroleum in the public sector. “I would like to draw your kind attention to the reported move to privatize Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and request your intervention to retain the entity in public sector,” the chief minister said in the letter.

Earlier, it was reported that the Union Cabinet may take up the stake sale of BPCL by the end of October. Reports suggest that the government is planning to sell its entire 53.29 per cent stake in the entity within this financial year.

However, Vijayan in his letter has said that the sale of state-run firm will not be in the interest of employees as well as the nation. “The government of Kerala and the civil society have a genuine concern that the disinvestment of BPCL will not be in the interest of more than thirteen thousand persons directly employed and other sectors on contract employment,” he said.

The chief minister further said that the company has been making a profit all along and has made more than Rs 50,000 crores of investment for the last five years. “BPCL has also been undertaking CSR activities in line with its commitment to the state of Kerala. For these reasons, I am of the opinion that BPCL should continue to be in public ownership in the national interest,” Vijayan said.

He has urged the prime minister to issue “appropriate directions to give up the move to disinvestment BPCL and retain it under the present ownership pattern, in the interest of all the stakeholders and above all in the national interest”.