Rahul goading ED to arrest Pinarayi, says Karat

CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat releasing LDF Vikasana Regha in Palakkad on Friday. | Photo Credit: K.K. MUSTAFAH

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat has alleged that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is seeking the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hunt down Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Addressing the media here on Friday, Mr. Karat demanded that the Congress leadership be ready to correct Mr. Gandhi’s statement.

Mr. Gandhi had asked here on Thursday why the BJP was sparing the Chief Minister. He had raised doubts about a tacit deal between the BJP and Mr. Vijayan.

Cases against Cong. leaders

Mr. Karat said that Mr. Gandhi was indirectly goading the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to act against the Chief Minister. He asked if the Congress agreed to the ED fabricating cases against the Opposition across the country. He said there were cases against Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and her family, in the National Herald case. “We never asked that they should be put in jail,” he said.

He said the current election would decide if democracy should continue, and the people would vote against the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The CPI(M) leader asserted that secularism would strengthen only if the Left had representation in Parliament. It was the Left that took the strongest stand against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said.