Can’t embrace Pinarayi Vijayan, says Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram : A speech delivered by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a meeting of the INDIA opposition alliance in Delhi has reignited the political debate over the relationship between the Congress and the CPI-M, with Rahul making it clear that the Congress remains engaged in a fierce political battle against former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan despite being partners in the national opposition bloc.

In the full text of the speech, which Rahul Gandhi has now released through a podcast, the Congress leader openly told opposition leaders that he could not embrace Pinarayi Vijayan because of the intense political contest between the two parties in Kerala.

“I cannot embrace Pinarayi Vijayan. We are engaged in a fierce political battle against him,” Rahul said, arguing that while the INDIA alliance must function as a united platform against the BJP nationally, regional political realities cannot be ignored.

As a national party present across states, the Congress has to respond to state-level political circumstances and cannot distance itself from those battles, he said.

The remarks are significant because they appear to run counter to a narrative repeatedly advanced by the CPI-M leadership in Kerala.

For a while, senior CPI-M leaders, including Pinarayi Vijayan himself, have alleged that Rahul Gandhi had been questioning why central agencies were not acting against the then Kerala Chief Minister.

The issue resurfaced last month after Enforcement Directorate officials visited and questioned Vijayan’s daughter in connection with the CMRL-Exalogic financial dealings case at a rented residence of Vijayan in the state capital.

Soon after the questioning ended, Vijayan reiterated that Rahul Gandhi had all along been asking why the ED was not conducting raids against him.

Similar accusations have frequently been echoed by top CPI-M leaders in the state to portray a tacit understanding between the Congress and the BJP at the national level.

Rahul’s newly released speech, however, presents a sharply different picture.

While stressing the need for opposition unity against the BJP and RSS, he underscored that the Congress has no intention of diluting its political fight against the CPI-M in Kerala.

The disclosure is expected to intensify political sparring in the state, with the Congress likely to cite Rahul’s remarks as evidence that the CPI-M’s long-standing allegations about his stance towards Pinarayi Vijayan do not square with the Congress leader’s own public position.

IANS