As the fight between Kerala Governor and the Marxist Government intensified, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that the BJP-led Central Government was misusing the office of Governor to sabotage constitutionally run State Governments in the country.
“The BJP-led Government at the Centre is past masters in derailing State Governments led by Opposition parties. They brought down many such governments through horse-trading. Wherever horse-trading was not working, they are deploying the Governors to sabotage the Constitution,” Vijayan said while addressing the Staff Association meeting of the Indian Space Research Organisation at Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. The CPI(M) has a strong presence in ISRO.
The Chief Minister alleged that Governor Arif Mohammed Khan was tarnishing the image of Kerala which had appreciation across the globe. “It was my Government which made Kerala the number one State in the country. Having failed to win at least a single seat in the legislative Assembly, the BJP in its bid to establish presence in the State was making use of Raj Bhavan to create chaos,” charged Vijayan.
But he did not refer to the Governor’s statement that the former had fallen at the feet of a young IPS officer in 1971 when his attempt to free an accused in a murder case was spoiled by the police in Kannur.
Vijayan’s outburst came against the backdrop of Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s statement on Monday ridiculing the CPI(M). The Telangana Government too has alleged that an axis led by BJP leader BL Santhosh, a Union Minister and Eezhava community leader Tushar Vellappilly in Kerala had offered million of rupees to TRS MLAs to bring down the Chandrasekhar Rao Government in the State.
The CPI(M) launched its door-to-door campaign in Kerala to get the Governor a persona non grata in the State. Party leaders distributed pamphlets containing “chargesheet” against the Governor in households across the State.
On November 15, the CPI(M) called for a massive demonstration in front of the Raj Bhavan to express its resentment against the Governor. Pinarayi Vijayan and Mohammed Riyaz, the Minister for PWD who is also the Chief Minister’s new son-in-law, would lead the demonstration and address the gathering. Efforts are on to ensure more than a hundred thousand people gather in front of Raj Bhavan on that day.