MALAPPURAM: In a veiled dig at P V Anvar, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said the Nilambur assembly by-election was the result of a betrayal.
Without naming the former MLA whose resignation necessitated the bypoll and who is now set to contest as a Trinamool Congress candidate, the CM said, “We are victims of someone’s betrayal.” He was speaking at the inauguration of the LDF election convention for the front’s candidate M Swaraj at Kodathipadi in Nilambur.
“The elections were supposed to be held in April to May. However, a big betrayal pushed us to the elections,” he said, while also reminding the gathering that Nilambur had a history of betrayals. “Nilambur is also the land of the man who cheated to capture Variyankunnan. We too have been cheated,” the CM said.
On Swaraj, he said the LDF had fielded a candidate with a clean image. He said Swaraj was a leader with statewide acceptance. “People have come to know this through experience. LDF has never hesitated to expose anything that harms the state and its people. Kerala is the state with the least corruption. Kerala has made great strides in the field of education and industry; has become the number one state through unhindered development,” Pinarayi said.
The CM also said while there are large-scale attacks on minorities in BJP-ruled states, there are no such communal problems in Kerala as communal forces are not allowed to grow under the LDF rule.
Meanwhile, IUML national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty inaugurated the election committee office of UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath in Nilambur on Sunday.