Earlier the target was my wife, now it’s my daughter, my hands are clean: Pinarayi Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Breaking his silence on the affairs of his daughter’s IT firm Exalogic, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the Kerala Assembly on Wednesday that his hands were clean.

“Before it was against my wife, now the allegations are directed towards my daughter. My daughter started a small IT firm using the retirement amount which my wife received. I am not going to be fazed by all this as my hands are clean. (he raised both his hands),” said Vijayan while concluding his speech on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.

On Wednesday, Vijayan unlike last year when he blew his top after the opposition Congress first time legislator Mathew Kuzhalnaden went hammer and tongs at the firm of Veena Vijayan, Exalogic, Vijayan looked cheerful while refuting the allegations by the Opposition.

Vijayan’s response came two days after the Congress alleged a "secret pact" between the Left party and the Sangh Parivar, after a lawyer with a Ram Janmabhoomi-related case history was appointed to handle the alleged graft case of Vijayan's daughter Veena.

Senior lawyer C.S. Vaidyanathan, who was the counsel for Ram Lalla in the Ram Janmabhoomi case, has been picked to represent the state-run KSIDC.

For the last several months, the Opposition in Kerala has been targeting the Vijayan government after a media report, quoting an Income Tax Department official, claimed that Veena Vijayan's IT firm had received Rs 1.72 crore from a mining company - CMRL, in which the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) has a stake.

However though Vijayan made the statement that his hands are clean, he did not say a word about the ongoing probe into his daughter’s firm by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.