THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the CPM organised a seminar on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Kozhikode, CPM leader and PWD Minister P A Mohamed Riyas alleged that the Congress tried to scuttle the programme. While the Congress hit back calling the seminar politically motivated, the BJP termed it as a damp squib.
“The Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan and state Congress president K Sudhakaran were hell-bent on scuttling the seminar and wrecking its purpose. They tried their best to ensure that the programme had very little participation,” Riyas alleged. Terming Satheesan and Sudhakaran as ‘sleeping agents’ of the BJP, Riyas said both were cheating the Congress.
In a sharp retort to Riyas, Satheesan said the minister’s remarks amounted to insulting the participants of the seminar who were invited by the party. “Did the seminar resolve to attack the Congress? It’s very clear that the CPM has only political motives behind this episode,” he said.
Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan had a humorous take on the CPM’s seminar, which he said was organised a day after the country’s third moon mission Chandrayaan-3 was launched. “The rocket that CPM sent to space has fizzled out,” he said. BJP said the seminar, organised by the CPM on the lines of a ‘party conference’ was a futile exercise aimed at vote bank.