Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday dared the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to explain how the main accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case gained easy admission to Sonia Gandhi’s high-security residence in Delhi before “stooping” to finger-pointing against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
Fielding questions about Mr. Gandhi singing a United Democratic Front (UDF) election parody censuring the LDF for the crime, Mr. Vijayan said: “Mr Gandhi should clarify how he found the theft case accused in his home”.
Mr. Gandhi had intoned two lines of the ditty at an election convention meeting in Pathanamthitta on Monday, drawing an enthusiastic response from UDF workers. He also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the temple theft signalled the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s tacit electoral understanding with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala. Mr. Gandhi had also raised the SNC Lavalin corruption case against Mr. Vijayan and said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case (in the Supreme Court) had reached a dead end because of Mr. Vijayan’s good offices with Mr. Modi.
Mr. Vijayan sought to counter Mr. Gandhi’s flanking attack against the CPI(M) by raising the cash-for-seat controversy swirling around the Congress’s national leadership, chiefly the offices of Priyanka Gandhi, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, and all MPs from Kerala, including Kodikunnil Suresh.
