Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will on Thursday leave for an eight-day visit to US and Cuba even as the Congress and BJP are opposing it citing the “financial crisis” the state is passing through.

Vijayan and Vijayan and his entourage’s US trip came under a cloud over news that in New York, when Vijayan inaugurates the regional meet of the Loka Kerala Sabha- a diaspora meet, those who wish to have share the dais and dine with him, will have to shell out US $ 50,000 and upwards.

Meanwhile, Vice-chairman of Norka (state agency for the diaspora) and a key organiser of the US diaspora meet- P.Sreeramakrishnan who, along with a top bureaucrat who arrived in New York the other day, told the media there that everything is in order and the meeting will be a success.

Both the Congress and the BJP have slammed the meeting as it will add to the burden of the cash-strapped Kerala coffers, as the state is meeting the expenses of Vijayan and others who form part of the official delegation.

The three-day diaspora event begins in New York from June 9-11 and after that he moves on to Cuba and will be there for a few days and then returns to Kerala.

Now all eyes are on the success of the meeting in the wake of a controversy over a Communist leader participating in a meeting where people are being charged.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)