Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is “compromised” and is colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party to target the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged on Saturday.

The Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are partners in the Opposition INDIA bloc that is taking on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the Lok Sabha elections. However, they are contesting the polls alone in Kerala.

“Your chief minister is compromised,” Vadra said while addressing a rally in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta. “He only attacks Rahul Gandhi and the Congress and never speaks a word against the BJP. His name had emerged in several scams. But how come the Modi government never puts a case against him, never raids him and no action is taken on him.”

Voting for all 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala will take place in the second phase on April 26.

Tensions emerged within the bloc after the state-level Congress-led United Democratic Front renominated Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi from the seat against the Left Democratic Front candidate Annie Raja. The Left Democratic Front of left-wing political parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), is the ruling alliance in Kerala.

Vijayan accused the Congress of not being genuine in its attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the BJP, and its Hindutva ideology. According to Vijayan, the Congress had started to accept the agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

He has also been attacking the Congress for not saying that it will revoke the Citizenship Amendment Act and ignoring the abrogation of Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir.

On Thursday, Rahul Gandhi had asked why Vijayan was not arrested by the central agencies like other chief ministers of the Opposition parties, reported The Indian Express.

“Two chief ministers [Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren] are in jail,” the Wayanad MP said. “How come this is not happening to the chief minister of Kerala? I am attacking the BJP 24x7, and the chief minister of Kerala is attacking me 24x7. This is a bit puzzling.”

Responding to Gandhi’s comments, Vijayan had said on Friday that he was under arrest during the Emergency from 1975 to 1977 under the Congress rule, reported The Indian Express. Indira Gandhi was the prime minister at the time.

“Rahul is worried why the Kerala chief minister is not being questioned and why he is not being taken into custody,” Vijayan said. “It was your grandmother [Indira Gandhi] who had jailed us for one-and-a-half years when she suppressed the entire country.”

On Saturday, Vijayan pointed out how a case of fraud in land deals in Gurugram, Haryana against Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband Robert Vadra was shut after electoral bonds were donated to the BJP, reported the Hindustan Times.

The Haryana Police had named Robert Vadra and real estate conglomerate DLF Group, among others, in the case.

Analysis of electoral bond data released by the Election Commission in March showed that DLF group had donated Rs 170 crore to the BJP between October 2019 and November 2022. In April 2023, the BJP government in the state told the High Court that it had found no violations in the deals.

Also read: After Rs 170 crore to BJP, real estate firm DLF got ‘clean chit’ in Vadra deal from Haryana