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Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajeev Chandrasekhar didn’t hold back on Sunday, demanding that Sonia Gandhi come clean about her past meeting with Unnikrishnan Potty, the man at the center of the Sabarimala gold theft scandal. Holding up a photograph of the two together during a press conference, Chandrasekhar questioned why the then-Congress president was meeting with Potty while Oommen Chandy was the Chief Minister.

 

"The Congress needs to explain the agenda here," Chandrasekhar said, suggesting the meeting is "clear evidence" that the systematic theft of gold from Sabarimala has been going on for 15 years with political backing. He didn't stop at the Congress, though; he also dragged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan into the fray, alleging the CM had a similar sit-down with Potty that has never been properly explained. He mocked the Congress for labelling groups like the IUML as "secular" while simultaneously hosting a suspected temple thief in Delhi.

 

The BJP leader also took aim at the state government’s recent administrative decisions, specifically the appointment of former Justice Babu Mathew P Joseph as the Ombudsman for local bodies. Chandrasekhar argued this was a blatant violation of the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act, which prevents former Lok Ayuktas or Upa Lok Ayuktas from taking on new government-funded roles. He confirmed that a formal complaint has already been handed to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar.

 

Speaking of the Governor, Chandrasekhar voiced his disbelief over how the Assembly records handled the Governor’s recent speech. He accused the CM of essentially swapping the Governor’s actual words with a version that suited the government’s interests. "Has the Constitution been forgotten?" he asked, calling it an unprecedented and "wrong" practice to amend a Governor’s address in the official record. He pointed out the irony of CPI(M) MPs preaching about constitutional protection while, in his view, undermining it at home.

 

Also read: SIT botched probe in Sabarimala gold scam case: Satheesan