Referred to Rahul Gandhi's old name due to his recent statements helping BJP: Vijayan

Kannur: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday defended his recent recollection of Rahul Gandhi's "old name", stating that it was in response to certain statements made by the Congress leader during campaigning in the state, which according to the left leader, helped the BJP and agencies under its control.

Vijayan said that such a conduct from the Congress leader was "completely immature" and therefore, Gandhi should not simply repeat what some of his party's leaders in the state tell him.

"That is why I said he should not go back to his old name," he said at a press meet held here.

Vijayan was responding to a reporter's query regarding the correctness of him making such a remark when in the past the CPI(M) had taken a stand against such personal attacks.

Vijayan had referred to Gandhi's old name on April 19 a day after the Congress leader had wondered why the Marxist veteran was not jailed by the BJP government at the Centre, unlike two other Chief Ministers of opposition-ruled states.

Vijayan was apparently referring to former CM V S Achuthanandan's remarks a decade ago against Gandhi calling him an "Amul Baby." During the 2011 state assembly elections, when Achuthanandan was 87 years old, Gandhi, while campaigning for the UDF, had said that if the LDF was voted back to power, then after its five-year tenure, Kerala would have a 93-year-old CM.

Hitting back at Gandhi, Achuthanandan ridiculed the Congress leader, saying that the grand old party had fielded some "Amul babies," and Rahul himself was an Amul baby.

The Kerala CM, during his press meet on Tuesday, also justified the allegedly objectionable remarks made by LDF MLA P V Anvar against Gandhi. Vijayan said that the Congress leader should realise that when he says something, "he will receive it back in kind." "He does not have such a stature that he will not get any response for his remarks," the communist party veteran said in response to a query on the issue by a reporter.

Anvar recently had allegedly referred to Gandhi as a "fourth class citizen", someone who is not eligible to use the Gandhi suffix along with his name and that the Congress leader should "undergo a DNA test".