Telangana CPIM secretary John Wesley
Hyderabad: Telangana Communist Party of India (Marxist) Secretary John Wesley on Wednesday, April 1, criticised Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for calling Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan a shadow of Prime Minister Modi.
In a statement, Wesley said, “Today, while campaigning in Kerala, the CM said voting for Vijayan is like voting for Modi and that the Kerala CM is a shadow of the Prime Minister.”
He reminded Reddy that the latter had referred to Modi as his elder brother during the PM’s visit to Telangana. Wesley also criticised the CM for appealing to the people to vote for the United Democratic Front led by the Congress in Kerala. “In Telangana, you allocate 8 per cent of the budget to education while the Liberal Democratic Front Kerala allocates 24 per cent of the budget to education,” the secretary said.
He then criticised Reddy for not fulfilling the six guarantees based on which the Congress won the 2023 Assembly elections. “The Congress had promised Rs 2,500 monthly stipend for women and the creation of 2 lakh jobs annually, but did not deliver,” he said.
Wesley said the Telangana government also failed to provide Rs 12,000 for agricultural labourers and Rs 15,000 to tenant farmers.
Speaking of Kerala, the secretary said that it is the first state to declare itself poverty-free and asked the Telangana CM if he has achieved such a feat.
The Congress party has governed in the past, and it governs now. Is there a single state in the country, whether governed by the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party, that can claim to have successfully eradicated extreme poverty? That distinction belongs solely to the LDF government and Kerala.
“The LDF government is the primary reason why everyone in the region has become literate and why employment opportunities, in one form or another, have become available to all,” he said.
The Telangana CPM Committee strongly condemns the manner in which the Chief Minister of Telangana has spoken, employing tactics that obscure these very facts in an attempt to deceive the public.
We appeal to the general public to fully grasp and understand this issue. The people of Kerala are educated; they think critically about all matters. We are confident that, in the upcoming elections, they will teach the UDF a fitting lesson.
Wesley’s statement comes after the Telangana CM addressed a rally during his two-day visit to Kerala to campaign for Congress ahead of the assembly elections on April 9. In a road show, Reddy urged the people of Kerala not to vote for the Liberal Democratic Front (LDF), adding that CM Pinarayi Vijayan is a shadow of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As part of the campaign, Reddy held a road show in Nemon constituency, where he cautioned voters against voting for the Liberal Democratic Front, alleging that a vote for LDF would mean a vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Today, I wanted to appeal to people of Keralam that if you are going to vote for LDF or Pinarayi Vijayan, then your vote is going to reach Narendra Modi in Delhi… There is no difference between Pinarayi Vijayan and Narendra Modi,” Reddy said.
This post was last modified on April 2, 2026 11:01 am