"You had been given a name earlier... your grand mother put us in jail": Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan hit out at Rahul Gandhi

Kerala chief minister's statement came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Pinarayi Vijayan for lashing out at him.

Speaking at a public meeting organised by the United Democratic Front in the Kottayam district of Kerala, Rahul Gandhi said, "Everybody knows I fight the BJP 24x7, I disagree with them ideologically. Hundreds of BJP leaders thinking about how to fight Rahul Gandhi. Anyone who fights the BJP pays the price. They took away my membership, and my house, and investigated me for hours."

Speaking in a party programme in Kozhikode CM Vijayan was reacting to the latter's allegation that in Kerala central investigation agencies did not go after the opposition, hinting at a possible background deal between CM Vijayan and PM Modi.

CM Pinarayi Vijayan said, "I heard Rahul Gandhi ask yesterday as to why I am not questioned and not taken into custody. Why no cases are put against me? Rahul Gandhi, you had been given a name earlier (Pappu). Don't create a situation that shows you are still the same. Your grandmother (Indira Gandhi), put us all in jail when she was ruling this country for some years. We won't get scared hearing the name of jail like your leader Ashok Chavan, who said that he cannot go there. We are not like that. We are not among them who have never faced questioning."

In his campaign speeches, Rahul Gandhi has alleged that while Central investigation agencies go after other governments run by opposition parties, in Kerala they did not do so, hinting at a possible background deal between CM Vijayan and PM Modi.

Rahul's allegation is a reiteration of what the Congress leaders of the state have been saying against the Chief Minister.

Although the Left parties and the Congress are part of a larger INDIA bloc, they are opposed to each other in Kerala, where the Congress is currently in opposition as part of the UDF alliance.

All 20 constituencies in Kerala will go to the polls on April 26 in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while the Congress party had won 15 seats, its allies, the Indian Union Muslim League, won two seats, the Revolutionary Socialist Party won one, and the Kerala Congress (M) won one seat. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) won one seat in Alappuzha. (ANI)