Pinarayi Calls Rahul, A National Leader Who Lacks Even Political Insight Of Local Leader

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday lashed out at Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi, calling him an all-India leader who lacks even the political insight of a local party leader.

The Chief Minister’s remarks came a day after Rahul alleged a “secret deal” between the CPM-led LDF and the BJP for the upcoming Assembly elections in Kerala. “He will not learn despite seeing what’s happening around him or experiencing it himself,” Pinarayi said.

He pointed out that it was Rahul who had demanded the arrest of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, only for Kejriwal to be acquitted later. “The Congress took a strong stand against AAP, which ended up helping the BJP. In the Delhi Assembly polls, the Congress became the BJP’s B team, and the same happened in Haryana,” he added.

The Chief Minister also called for a national-level non-BJP alliance to take on the saffron party, reiterating that the CPM has always been firm in opposing the BJP.

Earlier, the CPM politburo strongly criticized the provocative remarks by Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge against Pinarayi Vijayan and the party’s secular credentials, calling them baseless attempts to gain cheap electoral mileage in the Assembly polls. The CPM urged Congress leaders to reflect on why, in state after state, their members have deserted the party for the BJP, noting that in Tripura, the entire Congress leadership joined the BJP in 2018 to defeat the Left Front.

It added that the people of Kerala, having experienced unprecedented development and communal harmony under LDF rule, will firmly reject both the UDF and NDA. Meanwhile, AICC general secretary K. C. Venugopal claimed that Pinarayi Vijayan’s attack on Rahul Gandhi was aimed at pleasing Modi and Amit Shah.

Pinarayi - Satheeshan exchange barbs on social media

Pinarayi also targeted Kerala Assembly opposition leader V D Satheeshan, sharing a photo of him garlanding RSS leader Golwalkar’s portrait at an event in his Paravur constituency in 2006.

He claimed Satheeshan has consistently avoided addressing this incident, which took place just before the 2006 assembly polls, and said that in 2022 the Sangh Parivar group Hindu Aikya Vedi revealed Satheeshan had sought RSS support in both the 2001 and 2006 elections.

Satheeshan hit back with an equally sharp Facebook post, accusing Pinarayi Vijayan of contesting the 1977 assembly polls with RSS backing. He also shared photos of Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Jyoti Basu, and E M Namboodiripad with L K Advani and K G Marar to suggest the Marxists had allied with the Sangh Parivar against the Congress.

Satheeshan listed a series of events to showcase alleged Pinarayi -Sangh Parivar camaraderie. He alleged that Pinarayi Vijayan was the one who took Governor Rajendra Arlekar to have breakfast with Nirmala Sitharaman, signed the PM Shri programme, which was opposed by the Left nationally, blocked a central probe into corruption charges against him and his family by derailing the investigation into a hawala transaction involving Kerala BJP leaders, sent the ADGP to meet RSS leaders, and disrupted the Thrissur Pooram celebrations to help secure the BJP’s first-ever Lok Sabha victory from Thrissur.

Satheeshan added that the Congress, which has taken a firm stand against the RSS, does not need to take lectures from Pinarayi Vijayan.