New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, March 18 Veteran Opposition Lok Sabha member from Kerala, N.K. Premachandran, slammed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for his defence of the ‘informal’ meeting that he had with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week in the presence of Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar.
Speaking to IANS, the MP questioned the meaning of ‘informal’ when the meeting was held in the Kerala House and all government machinery was being used.
“Informal means when a meeting takes place without any prior scheduling and is held in a private place or at an event. This was a breakfast meeting and this happens at a time when the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (under Sitharaman) is probing Vijayan’s daughter’s IT firm’s deals,” said Premachandran.
Premachandran said it was hilarious to hear CM Vijayan telling the Kerala Assembly that it was purely a “friendly conversation”.
Then CM Vijayan added that he has his own political views and so does the Governor and also FM Sitharaman and political views do not get eroded through such a meeting.
“It’s here I have strong objections as I was haunted and hunted by the youth wing of the CPI-M and all the CPI-M leaders when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the end of the previous Lok Sabha session, called a few MPs to join him for food at the Parliament canteen. I was one of those who was invited by the PM and I had joined,” he said.
“During the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, I was humiliated by the CPI-M and all their people stating that in the new Lok Sabha, after the elections, I will join the BJP and I would be made a Union Minister.
“Why is it that I was brutally attacked for taking part in a meeting called by the PM? When the CPI-M leaders engage in such meetings they say there is no erosion, but when I took part they created baseless narratives,” added Premachandran.
Incidentally veteran Congress legislator Ramesh Chennithala took potshots at CM Vijayan on the floor of the Assembly when he said this ‘informal’ meeting was the rehearsal for closer ties between the CPI-M and the BJP.
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