Congress targets Pinarayi Vijayan over CPM abstaining from I.N.D.I.A.'s Mumbai rally

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the candidatures of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal in Kerala have been cited as the reason for the CPM keeping off from the I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders' rally at Mumbai on Sunday, Congress leaders in Kerala are targeting Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the same.

K C Venugopal, who is contesting from Alappuzha in Kerala, told reporters that Vijayan was scared of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hence he abstained from the Mumbai rally. He also said that the CPM was not sincere in their support to the I.N.D.I.A bloc. They were using I.N.D.I.A bloc just for their campaigning, he said.

Kerala PCC acting president and United Democratic Front convenor M M Hassan said that the CPM leadership had succumbed to the interests of Vijayan to please the BJP government at the Centre as central agencies were probing into allegations against him.

He also pointed out that even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself said on various occasions in Kerala about the involvement of the chief minister's office in gold and dollar smuggling, no further actions were being taken, owing to the nexus between the two.

Opposition leader V D Satheesan asked whether the CPM would be ready to withdraw its candidates in Tamil Nadu where it is contesting along with the Congress.

Meanwhile, the Congress also stepped up the allegations of business tie-ups between union minister of state Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPM leader E P Jayarajan to back up their allegation of the CPM-BJP nexus.

Congress claimed that there are pictures of the CPM leader's family members with staff of a hospitality firm promoted by Chandrasekhar.

Satheesan challenged the CPM to sue him if the allegations were baseless. He claimed that Pinarayi Vijayan had made Jayarajan say that BJP fielded many good candidates in Kerala and the fight in the state is between CPM and BJP.

Those were Pinarayi's bids to please Modi, said Satheesan.