Excluding Chandy from Modi function an act of political vendetta: Congress

Congress MP K.C. Venugopal on Monday condemned the exclusion of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's name from a programme to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kerala, terming it as a case of 'political vendetta'.

"This is a case of political vendetta. Unveiling the statue of R. Sankar (former chief minister) is a very good thing. After a long time, a Prime Minister has agreed to come. The Kerala Government had also sent a minute to minute programme to PMO. In that programme, the presidential address should be given by Chief Minister of Kerala, but the PMO did not mention the name of the Chief Minister. It is a clear case of political vendetta shown by the Prime Minister's Office itself," Venugopal told ANI here.

"Excluding a Chief Minister's name in a programme attended by Prime Minister is very much condemnable. The Chief Minister represents the people of Kerala, hence, the entire people of Kerala felt humiliated as a result of this. We should raise this issue in the Parliament as well," he added.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was on Saturday asked to keep away from a function to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, which had invited him earlier to preside over it.

The function, scheduled for Tuesday, is to unveil the former Chief Minister and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, R. Sankar's statue in Kollam.

Chandy said in a statement that SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan advised him to stay away because "certain quarters" might not like his presence.