THRISSUR/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched a personal attack on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, dragging him and his family onto the centre stage of BJP’s electioneering in the state.
Addressing election rallies for the party candidates in Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram, the prime minister held the state government responsible for the financial rut it was in.
“The chief minister and his daughter are facing allegations of corruption over mineral sand mining. This incident would not have come to light had it not been for the intervention of the Union government,” Modi said at Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram. The state government is accused of trying to save those involved in the gold smuggling case, he added.
The PM’s accusation comes at a time when rumours are flying thick and fast that Pinarayi’s daughter may be summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning within a week in the CMRL pay-off case.
Speaking in Thrissur, Modi assured the victims of cooperative bank frauds in the state that they will get back their money if his party is voted to power. “The perpetrators of the frauds will be sent to jail,” he said.
Referring to the Karuvannur bank scam, Modi alleged that the Left government in the state was inventing new ways for looting the public.
“In Karuvannur, CPM leaders looted money from the bank where people belonging to middle- and lower middle-class families had invested their hard-earned money... money that was saved and deposited at Karuvannur for their daughters’ marriage. Several parents could not hold their daughters’ marriage due to the scam,” he said.
“For the past three years, Pinarayi has been spouting lies about the scam. It was the Modi-led government that recovered Rs 90 crore from the fraudsters,” he added, promising to return the money recovered from tainted cooperative banks to the depositors.
Modi said Kerala’s economy was in doldrums due to the corruption of the successive governments. “The treasury is empty and the government doesn’t have money to pay salaries to its employees. The money given by the Centre for the state’s development is being fully utlised for loan repayment,” he added.
The prime minister said the state government suffered a setback in the Supreme Court, which clearly said the state government’s inefficiency was to be blamed for the financial mess it was in. “Kerala’s future is not safe in the hands of the two major fronts here,” he said.
Modi said his 10 years of rule were clean, and his government took various steps to prevent corruption. He said the corrupt parties had forged an alliance to defeat him. “But I’m not scared of the corrupt. I will not show any leniency towards them,” he said.
He added that all votes for his party would strengthen the fight against corruption.
The BJP’s election manifesto, he stressed, was “Modi’s guarantee to the people”.
The Kunnamkulam function was attended by party candidates Abdul Salam (Malappuram), Suresh Gopi (Thrissur), T N Sarasu (Alathur) and Nivedida Subramanian (Ponnani).
The meeting at Kattakada was attended by candidates K Surendran (Wayanad), V Muraleedharan (Attingal), Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Thiruvananthapuram) and G Krishnakumar (Kollam).
Actor Sobhana, who attended the rally in Thiruvananthapuram, said Modi had made the impossible possible and that won him a second innings in power. He is now working for a third innings and BJP’s candidates from Kerala are capable of realising his dream for the country, she added.