On penultimate campaign day, CM Vijayan slams ECI, Kerala MPs

Kannur (Kerala) April 23 (IANS) With just one more day left for the election campaigning in Kerala to end, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday used his time to slam Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the 18 Kerala MPs, especially senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

CM Vijayan also predicted a resounding victory for the Left.

Campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections comes to a close on Wednesday evening and Kerala goes to the polls on April 26 to elect 20 new Lok Sabha MPs.

In the 2019 polls, the Congress-led UDF won 19 seats and the CPI(M)-led Left got one seat.

However, midway one UDF Lok Sabha member Thomas Chazhikadan’s party, the Kerala Congress (M) joined the Left Front.

CM Vijayan while addressing the media in his home turf Kannur, after winding up his statewide election campaign covering all the 14 districts, said the general feeling across the country is that the Modi Government should not return.

“There is a strong anti-Modi wave across the country. PM Modi is making highly-objectionable communal statements and this is the time for the Election Commission of India to intervene to show its impartiality, but nothing has happened. So the only option left is the legal route and it will be taken,” said CM Vijayan.

Then turning as always to take on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, CM Vijayan said, the general impression even among the Congress leaders is that Rahul has changed after his yatras.

“He never spoke a word about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act during his yatra, nor does the Congress manifesto say anything about it. One fails to understand why he is silent and it appears he is helping the RSS and the BJP.

“This is what we pointed out. And in Kerala, Rahul speaks a different tone, when he should be saying what’s being spoken by the Opposition across India,” said CM Vijayan.

The CM is miffed with the Congress MP for saying that the Enforcement Directorate is going soft on Vijayan and his daughter’s IT firm’s deals.

Then CM Vijayan slammed the 18 sitting UDF MPs and said they never raised their voices for Kerala inside Parliament.

“I had twice called a meeting and sought the support of the 18 MPs of the UDF to fight for the needs of the state. They agreed to support us, but when it came to signing the memorandum that had to be submitted, they said that a sentence should be included in the memorandum, that it’s due to the poor governance of the state that things have reached this level.

“This clearly shows the mindset of these 18 MPs as they are against the state. This time the Left will have a resounding victory,” added CM Vijayan.