Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 26 (PTI) The Congress party’s allegation of a “deal” between the CPI(M) and the BJP in the April 9 Assembly polls in Kerala on Thursday triggered a social media war between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and V D Satheesan over who has links with the RSS.
Vijayan, earlier in the day, posted an old photograph of Satheesan at an RSS event on his Facebook page and said the people of secular Kerala have the right to know the Congress leader’s response regarding his participation in the 2006 Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar centenary celebration in his Paravur constituency.
Hitting back at the CM, Satheesan posted on his Facebook page several old photographs of past Left leaders with BJP political figures, like L K Advani, and said that it was the CPI(M) which defended the RSS and not the Congress.
He also alleged that Vijayan won in the 1977 Assembly polls with RSS support and termed him a “typical agent” of the right wing organisation.
He also claimed that the Congress government at the Centre in 1989 was overthrown by V P Singh with the support of the BJP and the CPI(M).
Vijayan, in his post, said that in 2006, Satheesan attended the Golwalkar birth centenary celebration organised by the RSS in Paravur and sought a clarification from him about the “deal” that led him to inaugurate the event, “bow before Golwalkar’s photograph, and light the ceremonial lamp”.
M S Golwalkar was the second Sarsanghchalak (chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and played a key role in shaping the organisation’s vision and structure.
The CM alleged that Satheesan, who represents Paravur in the State Assembly, has consistently evaded questions about the event by referring instead to another programme held in 2013.
The veteran Marxist leader said Golwalkar, the longest-serving Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, was honoured by Satheesan in this manner at a significant time.
The event took place in February 2006 at Manakkappadi School in Paravur, just ahead of the Assembly elections, he said.
Vijayan further claimed that in 2022, the state president of the Hindu Aikya Vedi, a Sangh outfit, revealed that Satheesan had sought RSS support during the 2001 and 2006 Assembly elections.
“The Leader of the Opposition has not yet provided a clear response on this matter either,” he said, adding that it is therefore difficult to blame those who suspect that the Golwalkar homage in 2006 was an attempt to secure RSS support.
“At the very least, the Leader of the Opposition should now clarify what the deal in Paravur in 2006 was,” Vijayan said.
While silent on the accusations made by the CM, Satheesan’s post referred to “RSS leader” K G Marar’s alleged links with EMS Namboodiripad and Advani attending a poll campaign event of Palakkad CPI(M) candidate Sivadasa Menon in the 1990s.
He also attached to his post photographs of CPI(M) and BJP/RSS leaders standing together on various occasions and said that the Congress has more pictures than the CM has.
Satheesan also accused Vijayan of disrupting the Thrissur Pooram to help the BJP win from the central Kerala constituency and sabotaging the ED investigation into the Karuvannur cooperative bank scam and the SFIO probe against his daughter’s company.
He also claimed that it was Vijayan who maintains close relations with BJP leaders like Nitin Gadkari and Nirmala Sitharaman.
The social media war between the two follows the “BJP-CPI(M) deal” allegation by the Congress as campaigning for the Assembly polls nears its peak in the state, which has nearly 50 per cent minority voters.
In a barrage of attacks on the CPI(M), Satheesan had earlier said that there was an understanding between the Left party and the BJP in certain constituencies to defeat the Congress-led UDF.
He had alleged that such understandings exist in two constituencies in Pathanamthitta district, as well as in Palakkad, Kasaragod and Manjeshwar, where there is an agreement to ensure each other’s victory. PTI HMP TGB HMP KH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.