After serving five years as Kerala MLA, all that Vincent owns is a small 650-square feet house

Following 21-year-old Arya Rajendran becoming Thiruvananthapuram Mayor, the news about her living in a rented house had gone viral. However, even more interestingly, Kovalam MLA M Vincent’s house is another story to behold. While we hear stories about MLAs earning in Lakhs, and owning large properties in and around the state, Vincent’s tale is different. Even after being an MLA for five years, Vincent only has a 650-square feet small home in a one-and-a-half cent land.

Vincent’s house is situated about three and a half kilometres away on the Balaramapuram-Vizhinjam road. One can see a sanitiser stand attached to the outside wall of the house with a name board showing ‘M Vincent MLA.’ The house has two rooms, one for Vincent’s mother Phylis, and the next room is shared by five people — Vincent’s wife Mary Subha, his children, Adithyan, Abhijith, and Adhya.

The land was given to him by his father Michael. Seven years ago, they had built rooms, which can be rented as shops, in the 4 cents of land that Mary had received from her family. For public works, Vincent uses the income that he receives from these shops, but its loan has crossed over Rs 20 lakh. The State Co-operative Bank has warned that they would initiate legal actions on Monday if he fails to pay Rs 1.45 Lakh immediately.

Meanwhile, Vincent had to buy four cents of land from his relative since it could not be sold outside the family. For this purpose, the MLA took a loan of Rs 20 lakh to buy the property and to build a house. Without repaying both loans, the MLA can't build a new house.