Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress on Friday hit out at Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over allegations by senior journalist G. Sakthidharan that he is under the control of ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ who is running the government in the coastal state.
Sakthidharan, in a post on his Facebook page, claimed that, “Vijayan is now under the control of a kitchen cabinet consisting of three or four people who now run the show, on account of his ill-health”.
Part of the editorial team of CPI-M party mouthpiece Deshabhimani, Sakthidharan left it many years back after serving it at a top post. While working with the newspaper, the journalist was very close to most of the stalwarts of CPI-M.
Taking up the allegations, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V.D. Satheesan also said that a group in Vijayan’s office controls everything. It is a shame that when very grave allegations have surfaced against Vijayan, the police are being used to target the opposition leaders, he added.
“Just look into what Sakthidharan has written, but there is no probe about it. Only the opposition leaders are being haunted and hunted. This is the double standard of Vijayan,” he said.
Last week, journalist Sakthidharan in a Facebook post — though he did not explicitly name Vijayan — dropped numerous hints that it was Vijayan who stayed for two days at the Kochi office of the party mouthpiece and counted money over Rs 2 crore.
After writing about the alleged scam, Sakthidharan wrote that he has been under duress as his family members have been attacked by the party over the issue.
“The entire family of mine has come under ‘attack’ in the social media and they have not spared my late parents, nor my grandchild and all this is being done with the blessings of the party. Now that I am unable to handle this barrage of abuse, I have decided to stop writing on my Facebook, instead I will have an online version of Janasakthi and also a YouTube channel,” the senior journalist wrote on Facebook.
The opposition Congress attacked Vijayan over the allegation made by the senior journalist and lodged a complaint with the state police chief.
Congress Lok Sabha member Benny Behanan said he has filed a complaint however there has been no action taken regarding the complaint.
“Though Sakthidharan did not name anyone but I am saying that the person was Vijayan and the other person who was with him was the former CPI-M party legislator P. Jayarajan,” Behanan alleged.
He said that the third person named by the senior journalist is a cabinet minister which needs to be probed.
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