Kottayam: Pinarayi Vijayan is continuing as the chief minister of Kerala at the mercy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader K C Venugopal said here on Friday.
The AICC general secretary made the scathing attack on Pinarayi at an election rally for Chandy Oommen, the UDF candidate in Puthuppally bypoll, at Manarcaud. Venugopal made the occasion an opportunity to counter the allegations levelled against the Congress and UDF by Pinarayi a day ago at Puthuppally.
Venugopal challenged Pinarayi to show at least one-tenth the courage of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in speaking against Modi.
Venugopal, also a Rajya Sabha MP, was agitated over the chief minister’s repeated criticism that the Congress was having an unholy nexus with the BJP.
“I heard Pinarayi boasting about retaining the portions omitted by the central government in textbooks. It was done by the Congress government in Karnataka even before Pinarayi thought about it. The former BJP government in Karnataka had introduced the anti-conversion bill targetting Muslims and Christians. We promised to repeal it and did so. We are the party of Rahul Gandhi who went to Manipur and solaced the victims of the riots there despite the BJP government trying to block him. It is to such a party that Pinarayi is saying we are not opposing BJP,” Venugopal said.
He reiterated the Congress’ charge that the Lavalin case against Pinarayi was postponed in the Supreme Court 34 times due to the understanding between the BJP and CPM. “The aim of both Modi and Pinarayi is to bring down the number of UDF’s seats in the Lok Sabha polls,” he said.
He said the public conscience of Kerala is expecting a lot of answers from the Puthuppally bypoll results. “The Communist supporters of Kerala must have been really happy when the LDF was re-elected in 2021. But now, I doubt whether the real communists are proud of the LDF’s second term,” he said.
Indian Union Muslim League chief Panakkad Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal also addressed the meet. He remembered Oommen Chandy as a chief minister who was equally concerned about the development of the state and the welfare of people.
Kerala Congress chief P J Joseph and Karnataka Power Minister K J George were among those who spoke.
