THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after CPM Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan targeted Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleging of his RSS lineage, UDF leadership closed ranks and rallied behind the Congress leader.Chennithala told TNIE that Kodiyeri’s allegation has become counter-productive with politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai jumping at the bait catching them unawares enabling the UDF to cash in on the issue.Of late, Chennithala has been coming out with a barrage of corruption charges against the government and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan giving him sufficient media space.
The CPM’s move to compare him as ‘sarsanghchalak’ within the Congress and accusing him of adopting softer Hindutva lines was part of the party’s plan to tarnish the opposition leader’s image. On Friday, Chennithala was not keen to react to Kodiyeri’s article which had come in CPM’s mouthpiece, Deshabhimani. He told TNIE on Saturday that CPM leadership has landed in a soup after SRP decided to confess to his role as a shikshak in a local RSS shakha in Kayamkulam.
“The CPM leadership was stunned by SRP’s so called confession. It looks like there is a ploy from a certain section of leaders within the CPM to topple the chances of SRP emerging stronger in the party. Their intention was to malign me, but it backfired and the UDF tackled it unitedly,” said Chennithala.It is learnt that the CPM leadership had asked SRP not to comment further on the issue and that they want the issue to fizzle out.
Former KPCC president M M Hassan maintained that it was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who got the shocker as he had relied on SRP’s RSS connections in New Delhi to delay the proceedings in the SNC Lavalin case which is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
“Long time back, Kodiyeri had raised the so called RSS connections of Chennithala’s mother which has since been linked to his father who had always been a Gandhian. Kodiyeri has failed miserably in attacking Chennithala on his RSS lineage,” said Hassan.It seems that CPM leadership doesn’t want to raise the issue further, but the UDF is keen to go to town with it to ensure that their political rivals’ ploy is bared before the public.