The ruling front and opposition spat over alleged Sangh Parivar collaboration continued to rage on Thursday. Sometimes the exchanges between contending leaders seemed to border on the personal.
Leader of the Opposition, V. D. Satheesan, accused Law Minister P. Rajeeve of unleashing Sangh Parivar's leaders against him.
The CPI(M) newspaper, Deshabhimani, had recently published a 2013 photograph showing Mr. Satheesan attending a Vivekananda Kendra organised function.
Mr. Satheesan said BJP supporters had first published the picture on their social media pages. Deshabhimani amplified the false Sangh Parivar propaganda at Mr. Rajeeve's instance, he alleged.
Mr. Satheesan claimed the Minister backtracked when he pointed out that the then Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan had also attended the event.
Mr. Satheesan accused Mr. Rajeev of mobilising a witchhunt against him.
He said, "At Mr. Rajeeve's beckoning, a posse of CPI(M) legislators alleged that I drew excess benefits as the Leader of the Opposition."
Mr. Satheesan claimed he had not drawn any more concessions than those allocated to former opposition leaders.
The CPI(M) had raised the allegation when it was planning behind curtains to accord the same administrative privileges to the Chief Whip at the taxpayer's expense.
Mr. Satheesan also repeated the allegation that Mr. Rajeeve was in close nexus with a Hindu Aikya Vedi leader and had "lent credibility" to the person.
Mr. Rajeeve had retorted that Mr. Satheesan had stooped to invective and slander to cover up the embarrassment of having been seen at an RSS function.
He said:" I challenge Mr. Satheesan to prove the charge that the said RSS leader is a regular at my home and office.", he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Satheesan also took issue with Public Works Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas's purported statement that the Leader of the Opposition had taken exception to the ruling front remark that Union Minister for External Affairs had visited a flyover in Kazhakuttam with an eye on the next Lok Sabha elections.
"Mr. Riyas, like his party compatriot, has distorted my comment. I had only objected to the Minister's charge that the Oommen Chandy government had done little for NH development in Kerala. I did not endorse Mr. Jaishankar's political posturing in the State," he said.
