Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan Criticizes Congress Party For Their Leaders Joining BJP

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India] : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday criticized the Congress party over their leaders joining the Bharatiya Janata Party and asked on which side the 11 former Congress Chief ministers are now. Pinarayi Vijayan was inaugurating the Kannur district LDF election convention.

"Some people are confused. what is the difference between Congress and the other group? Is there a difference? Where are Congress leaders standing now? On which side are 11 former Congress Chief Ministers now? They are with the BJP leadership. Ashok Chavan, Amarinder Singh, Digambar Kamat, SM Krishna, Vijay Bahuguna, Kiran Kumar Reddy, ND Tiwari, Jagadambika Pal, Pema Khandu, Narayan Rane, and Girdhar Gamang. That's the 11 of them. How many more? Nobody can predict that. Can anybody of you say? This is Congress' condition," Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said.

"BJP is standing with open arms. They are ready to accept anyone. They are giving enough money and positions as per their needs. Just like those creatures who run after the bone crumbs that you throw at them. That is the way of Congressmen," the Kerala CM added.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that certain Congress leaders have a fixed price for switching sides.

"I can't talk about the state situation now, because not many things are public. But one thing became public today. She (Padmaja Venugopal) went ahead and joined the BJP. What is the situation of Congress? Is the leader who joined today, the only one who joined the party? Some BJP spokespersons said that they are in talks with other people. Is it just talking or bargaining? It is bargaining. Some people have fixed prices. At the aptest moment, they will jump sides." Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleged.

Speaking on increasing human-animal conflict, the Kerala CM said, "Parliament passed the wildlife protection law in 1972. This was strengthened when Congress leader Jayaram Ramesh was in charge of the environmental ministry. On January 30, 2013, the central government and national tiger conservation authority issued an SOP on how to handle tigers entering human rehabilitation and guidelines to handle elephants. It'd be great if you could take action based on this only."

"State governments don't have the right to amend the law. This has to be done by the present central government. The state government has asked the Center to amend this law. Recently, the central forest minister visited Kerala and he said that this law can not be amended. BJP is following the law passed by Congress, and they are responsible for this. When the number of wild animals increases in the state, we have to take action like other countries. But the state government can not do this. Both the BJP and Congress, who are responsible for this law are using this issue politically against the state government." said the Kerala Chief Minister.

The Kerala Chief Minister said that the state government has forwarded 620 crore rupees in projects to the central government regarding human-animal conflict.

"The state government has forwarded 620 crore rupees in projects to the central government. But the central government has not given consent so far. Now, the wild animals entering the habitation are sent back to the forest. That is the only possible way. Now the state government is taking more action. The government has made arrangements to make water available for us. The last cabinet has taken so many actions in this regard. The Kerala government is doing all possible things to protect the people. But there are limitations," Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.