'Don't act for vested interests': Vijayan tells media over Shailaja episode

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday blamed the media for not doing a clean job, but instead acting for "vested interests".

Vijayan, presently leading the first of its kind state-wide trip with his entire cabinet from Manjeswaram and intended to pass through all the 140 Assembly constituencies before culminating in the state capital on December 23, slammed the media for "twisting facts" and airing "baseless news" after it highlighted the way he spoke to the husband of his former cabinet colleague and veteran party legislator K.K. Shailaja and later, took pot shots at her.

The incident occurred when Vijayan reached Mattannur - the Assembly constituency of Shailaja - in Kannur district early this week.

As Shailaja’s husband, who is also a frontline party leader in Kannur, asked Vijayan how he saw the huge turnout at Mattannur and Vijayan curtly replied that there were bigger crowds elsewhere, leaving him flummoxed.

Then when Vijayan spoke at the public meeting, he took a dig at Shailaja saying that she spoke longer than what she was allowed and hence to keep up the time, the rest of the speakers have to keep their speeches short.

As this issue was raised at his daily media interaction, a peeved Vijayan said: "I don’t understand why the media is like this as if I have something against Shailaja. The media has a particular mindset and I really don’t know and understand why the media does like this. All I will say is this is not good."

During the first Vijayan government (2016-21), Shailaja won lot of applause the way she handled the Nipah attack in Kozhikode then and then the Covid pandemic. Shailaja was addressing the media daily about the way the state government was tackling Covid and Vijayan suddenly took over the daily media interaction for himself.

When Shailaja won the 2021 Assembly polls with the largest victory margin in the state - over 40,000 votes as the CPI-M-led LDF swept back to power, her name was missing from the list of the new ministers, leaving many, including in the CPI-M, shocked.