Words like 'jail', 'probe' don't scare us, Pinarayi Vijayan hits back at Rahul Gandhi

Kozhikode (Kerala), April 19: The war of words between Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi continued on Friday with the former slamming the latter on various issues.

Vijayan and Rahul Gandhi, who has been renominated by the Congress from the Wayanad Lok seat in Kerala, have been taking potshots at each other during campaigning for the general elections.

“Many thought that after the Bharath Jodo Yatras, there would be a change in Rahul Gandhi. But it doesn’t seem so. Please don’t think we will get scared like Ashok Chavan when we hear words like 'probe' or 'jail”. You (Rahul Gandhi) should remember that it was your grandmother (Indira Gandhi) who reigned supreme during the Emergency when we were put behind bars. So prison threat will not scare us,” CM Vijayan said while addressing an election rally here.

To recall, veteran politician and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan snapped ties with the Congress and joined the BJP earlier this year.

While addressing multiple election rallies in the state, Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly said that it’s strange and surprising that when a sitting Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) and a former Chief Minister (Hemant Soren) are presently in jail, the Kerala CM hasn't even been called for questioning.

CM Vijayan reiterated that Rahul Gandhi never uttered a word against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), neither during his Yatras nor his rallies in Wayanad.

“Why is Rahul Gandhi hesitant to raise the CAA issue? Why does Rahul Gandhi have a mindset similar to the Sangh Parivar,” the Chief Minister asked.

The 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, where the main electoral battle is between the CPI-M-led Left and the Congress-led UDF, will go to the polls on April 26. The results will be out on June 4.