THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the CPM leadership took potshots at Kollam MP NK Premachandran for attending a lunch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Parliament House canteen, the UDF leadership — including the Congress and the RSP — have decided to rally behind him. On Saturday, the top brass of the CPM leadership had come down heavily on Premachandran.
His lunch with Modi, alongside seven other MPs, on Friday had stirred up a hornet’s nest the next day, with critics branding him a BJP supporter and alleging “closeness” to that party. CPM Rajya Sabha MP Elamaram Kareem, LDF convener E P Jayarajan, Finance Minister K N Balagopal and CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam did not mince words while targeting Premachandran on Saturday.
But on Sunday, Vadakara MP K Muraleedharan was the first to back Premachandran. He maintained that if he gets a similar invitation from the prime minister, he too would have accepted it. “We will not allow Premachandran to be branded a Sanghi. He has been the most vociferous opponent of the BJP government in the Parliament. The controversy raked up by the CPM reveals their attempts to hide undercurrents by raising personal issues,” Muraleedharan said in Kozhikode.
Taking a cue from Muraleedharan, the Congress state leadership rallied behind the beleaguered Premachandran. Congress state president K Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan — whose statewide rally, ‘Samaragni’, reached the Left bastion of Kannur on Sunday — maintained that there was nothing wrong in Premachandran accepting lunch invitation from Modi. They said the CPM was deliberately creating controversies as they had nothing else to say. During their joint press meet, the duo pointed out that Premachandran is one of the best Parliamentarians in the country, and a popular MP as well. Sudhakaran demanded to know whether Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had not gone to meet Modi.
“I don’t understand what this hullabaloo is all about. Despite having political differences with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, I, along with UDF MLAs, had attended a meeting called by him. Premachandran accepted the invitation on similar grounds,” Satheesan said.