Kannur (Kerala) [India], March 26 : AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal on Thursday hit back at Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's criticism of Rahul Gandhi, asserting that the people of the state will give a "vivid reply" to the CM in the assembly elections.
Speaking to ANI in Kannur, the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Alappuzha said, "The chief minister, who is completely banking on BJP mercy, has no moral right to say a single word about Rahul Gandhi...This type of low-level attack against Rahul Gandhi, the people of Kerala will give a vivid reply to CM Pinarayi."
The remarks follow CM Pinarayi's press conference in Ernakulam earlier today, where he labelled Rahul Gandhi and the Congress as the "B-team" of the BJP, accusing them of adopting positions of the ruling party rather than learning from their own mistakes.
"Rahul Gandhi is a National leader, yet he lacks the basic awareness of even a common local worker of Congress in kerala; he simply refuses to learn from experience or mistakes. It is hard to understand how such a downfall is happening to him. Rahul Gandhi and his Congress are the 'B-team' of the BJP in the country, and yet its stance is being adopted across India," Kerala CM said.
Kerala legislative assembly elections will be held in a single phase on April 9, with counting of votes scheduled for May 4. The tenure of the current assembly is set to conclude on May 23.
Further, Venugopal criticised the government over its handling of the West Asia conflict, describing the all-party meeting as belated and pointing to gaps in India's foreign policy stance.
"...The stance of the government is missing...They called the all-party meeting very late, which should have been called earlier...Our stand is that India's stand on these types of situations should be neutral...Earlier, we used to mediate on these kinds of conflicts, but now it is missing in our foreign policy," he told ANI.