Kerala CM Vijayan, State Cong chief level allegations on each other

: A political slugfest has broken out in Kerala between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and State Congress chief K Sudhakaran over their college life with both trading barbs and allegations.

A day after Vijayan said the KPCC chief had plotted to kidnap his children, Sudhakaran came out with a rebuttal and asked the Chief Minister to maintain the “dignity of the post he is holding.”

Hitting out at Vijayan for having levelled the allegation during his press meet to give details of COVID-19, Sudhakaran wanted to know why no complaint had been filed with the police.

“Vijayan raised so many allegations. It was the press conference of the Chief Minister. We saw the real Pinarayi Vijayan yesterday (Friday), who came out of the PR agency’s cover. His stance was that of a political criminal. I cannot reply like him. My post and stature does not allow me to stoop to his level,” Sudhakaran said.

Vijayan had on Friday, while replying to a query from reporters about certain remarks made against him by Sudhakaran in an interview, raised the allegation that a person close to the current KPCC president had years ago revealed to him that Sudhakaran had plans to kidnap Vijayan’s son and daughter who were school students then.

“Why has he not revealed the details, why has he not complained to the police? He said he had not revealed it to anyone. Not even to his wife. Usually, if there is any threat against kids, one will inform the mother as they are always there to protect the kids. Is that how a father reacts?,” Sudhakaran asked.

Vijayan had raised allegations against the KPCC chief after an interview of Sudhakaran was published in a vernacular magazine in which he said he had kicked Vijayan down during an incident that happened around 50 years ago at Brennen College, their alma mater, at Thalassery in Kannur district.

Meanwhile, Sudhakaran said some of the references, attributed to him in the magazine, were off record and should not have beenpublished.

It was the fault of the reporter and the media house, he said.

The Chief Minister had also pointed out various allegations made by other Congress leaders against Sudhakaran including certain smuggling activities and assault cases against the Congress chief.

However, in the the press meet at Kochi, Sudhakaran denied all the allegations and said he would resign from the KPCC president post if the charges were proved.

During the press meet, Sudhakaran raked up the gold- smuggling case to counter Vijayan.

“The Chief Minister is raising allegations against me. We have not forgotten the gold-smuggling case, the appointment of Swapna Suresh and other matters,” Sudhakaran said.

The party colleagues of Sudhakaran, Opposition leader V D Satheeshan and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala came out in support of the KPCC chief and said the Chief Minister should not have raised such allegations against Sudhakaran.

“Currently, the controversial tree-felling matter is going on and this was an attempt by the Chief Minister to deflect the attention from such matters. Sudhakaran had clarified earlier itself that the published interview was wrong,” Satheeshan said.

Former opposition leader Chennithala, who is in Delhi, said the Chief Minister should understand the value of the post he is holding.

“I strongly condemn the remarks made by the Chief Minister against the KPCC president,” Chennithala told the media at Delhi.

However, CPI(M) secretary in-charge A Vijayaraghavan said the KPCC chief is taking the tone of a street goon.

“Those who have appointed him as the chief of congress should reconsider it,” Vijayaraghavan said.

Amid all these, the BJP hit out at both the Chief Minister and the KPCC chief and said they bothhave proved that they are criminals.

“The Chief Minister and the KPCC chief have both accepted publicly that they are basically criminals and goons. They have made it public in their press conferences. This is an attempt to deflect the attention from various pressing matters faced by the State,” Union Minister V Muraleedharan said in a release.

Vijayan was a senior to Sudhakaran in the government Brennan College at Thalassery.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)