Venugopal slams CM Vijayan over 'betrayal' remark in heated Nilambur bypoll campaign

Senior Congress leader K C Venugopal on Monday launched a scathing attack against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, stating that it was the Marxist veteran who placed Malappuram district under a cloud of suspicion by linking seizures of gold and cash from the area to extremist activities.

Speaking after inaugurating the UDF bypoll convention in Nilambur, Venugopal said Vijayan was the ''most qualified person to speak about betrayal'', responding to comments the Chief Minister made a day earlier during the LDF campaign launch in the same constituency.

He accused Vijayan of ''political double-dealing,'' claiming that it was the CM himself who helped the BJP win in Thrissur through a secret pact.

''The Chief Minister talks about betrayal, but it was a former minister in his own cabinet who admitted he lost due to a calculated betrayal,'' Venugopal said, in an apparent reference to the LDF candidate V S Sunil Kumar's defeat to the BJP's Suresh Gopi in the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat during last year's general election.

Vijayan had earlier described the Nilambur by-election as the result of ''the biggest betrayal'' -- a veiled attack on P V Anvar, a former LDF-backed independent MLA who has since joined the Trinamool Congress and become a vocal critic of Vijayan's leadership style, which Anvar refers to as ''Pinarayism''.

The bypoll was triggered after Anvar, who won from Nilambur in 2021, left the LDF following disagreements with the Chief Minister.

Venugopal accused Vijayan of ''tarnishing'' Malappuram's image, citing the CM's comments in a newspaper interview, where he linked large seizures of gold and cash from the district to extremist activities.

''Malappuram, which has made major contributions to India's freedom struggle, was insulted. Even the respected Panakkad Thangal was not spared,'' Venugopal said, referring to Vijayan's alleged statements against the religious figure and supreme leader of the Indian Union Muslim League Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal.

He added that the Panakkad family has always stood for peace and communal harmony, and criticised the CM for suggesting that the IUML leader should refrain from aligning with extremist views.

Venugopal said the UDF is united and committed to Nilambur's development and expressed confidence that the front's candidate Aryadan Shoukath would win with a clear majority.

The by-election is shaping up to be a high-profile four-way contest, with three prominent candidates -- CPI(M) leader M Swaraj of the LDF, Trinamool Congress state coordinator P V Anvar, and NDA candidate Adv Mohan George of the BJP--also filing their nominations on Monday.

Anvar, whose resignation as a Left-backed independent MLA paved the way for the by-election, filed his nomination after launching a new political front -- Janakiya Prathipaksha Prathirodha Munnani (JPPM) -- following his rejection by the Congress-led UDF.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)