Following accusations in the
Rajan case,
K. Karunakaran resigned and Antony, the state Congress president was appointed as the sixth
Chief Minister of
Kerala, on 27 April 1977 becoming the youngest
Chief Minister of the state at the age of 36. Antony subsequently contested a by-election from Kazhakuttam constituency in Thiruvananthapuram as he was not a member of the assembly and won by healthy margin of over 8 thousand votes. However, differences of opinion with Indira Gandhi and Karunakaran, especially over the emergency soon cropped up, leading to a fracture in the state Congress legislature party, with the two factions being led by Antony and Karunakaran respectively. Eventually, exactly one and half years after he had been sworn in as Chief Minister, he resigned from the post as well as the Congress party following its decision to field Indira Gandhi as the candidate in the by-election in Chikmagalur, Karnataka. Antony had to wait for over 15 years before becoming Chief Minister for a second term; again, on the back of Karunakaran's resignation this time over the controversial
ISRO spy case. On 22 March 1995, after a week-long deadlock, Antony was sworn in as Chief Minister, despite stiff opposition from Karunakaran. This term also lasted only one year before the United Democratic Front led by Antony narrowly lost the assembly elections in May 1996. Thereafter, Antony served as Leader of Opposition in the
Kerala Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2001. In 2001, Antony led the United Democratic Front to a historic victory of 100 seats, with the Congress party winning its largest share of seats in the state assembly. On 17 May 2001, a triumphant Antony was sworn in as Chief Minister; for the first time, he was already serving as an MLA before taking the mantle of Chief Ministership. However, his third term was extremely rocky and unstable, with Karunakaran refusing to cooperate with him and trying every tactic to overthrow him from office. This led to an erosion of public support as well as credibility. By the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress was a badly divided house and Antony had the disgrace of leading the party to its worst electoral performance since 1967. The final nail on the coffin was the defeat of K. Muraleedharan, the Electricity Minister in Antony's cabinet (incidentally Karunakaran's son) in the Wadakkanchery by-election, a seat widely perceived to be a Congress bastion. with his back on the wall, Antony had no option but to resign as Chief Minister. Several initiatives were taken in the fields of
Higher education, science & technology,
Biotechnology (including the
Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology at
Thiruvananthapuram), and
Information technology, under his ministries.
Manmohan Singh in June 2004 It was also under his rule that the
Kannur University was inaugurated by bifurcating the
University of Calicut. The
University of Sanskrit was founded in 1994. The
Indian Institute of Management and the
National Institute of Technology at
Kozhikode were established in the years 1996 and 2002 respectively. The
Akshaya project was implemented in 2002 by providing
E-literacy to the people those who haven't it and opening
Akshaya centres in the remote rural areas of the state, thus ensuring Internet availability all over the state, aiming to make Kerala the first complete E-literate state of India. Several initiatives were taken in the fields of
Higher education, science & technology,
Biotechnology, and
Information technology, under his ministries. The
IT@school project and introduction of
Information Technology in school level were initiated in 2001 by
Third Antony ministry, making Kerala the first Indian state to do so. Antony carried out
Asian Development Bank aided "Modernisation of Government Plan". He also liberalised education by allowing several private engineering and medical colleges to open in Kerala and championed the state as an investment destination. He also ordered the
closure of the Kerala Coca-Cola plant in 2004 citing drought and the non-availability of drinking water. ==Government offices==