Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran has alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan completely ignored the concerns of the people of Wayanad who have been affected by recurring incidents of wild animal attacks.
Addressing the media here as part of his ongoing ‘Kerala Padayathra’ on Tuesday, he said that the government had not taken any effective steps to address the issue. Mr. Surendran said that even the Minister for Forest and Wildlife, A.K. Saseendran, refused to visit the district. “The Forest department does not have modern equipment to tackle the situation. There is no mechanism of coordination with the departments in other States,” he said.
Mr. Surendran also trained his guns on Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP who represents the constituency, alleging that he was a “complete failure”. He alleged that Mr. Gandhi had attended very few official meetings that discussed the problems faced by the people of Wayanad. The BJP leader claimed that the Supreme Court had dismissed Kerala’s accusation that the Centre had been ignoring the State. He said that even after deploying senior lawyers such as Kapil Sibal, the State could not get a favourable order from the apex court.
Later, addressing a public meeting at the Muthalakkulam ground, Mr. Surendran said that the people of Kerala were fooled into believing that Mr. Gandhi would become the Prime Minister of the country during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “A section of the media and others tried to create the impression that Kerala would get a Prime Minister. That strategy is not going to work in the upcoming election,” he added.
