Kerala BJP President's 'cake diplomacy' creates ripples in Thrissur

Thrissur (Kerala), Dec 27 Senior CPI leader and former Kerala minister V.S. Sunil Kumar on Friday continued to attack Thrissur Mayor M.K. Varghese over his "friendliness" with the BJP.

Sunil Kumar had also slammed the Mayor for accepting a Christmas cake from state BJP President K. Surendran.

The Thrissur Corporation is ruled by the CPI-M-led Left in which the CPI is the second biggest party, but Varghese won as an independent. The Left offered Varghese the post of Mayor to keep out the Congress-led UDF.

Sunil Kumar had been up in arms against Varghese even before he lost to BJP candidate Suresh Gopi in the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat - the only seat that the BJP had won from Kerala in the 2024 general elections. Since then, the relationship between Varghese and the CPI has become more strained.

During the election campaign itself, the CPI leader had been critical of the way Varghese was behaving and on Friday, he alleged that even though the Mayor is sitting in the chair with the support of the Left, his allegiance is towards the BJP.

"Why did the BJP give a cake only to the Thrissur Mayor when there are several other mayors in the state," a peeved Sunil Kumar.

Reacting to the CPI leader's attack, Varghese said he is a Christian and he has been taught that no one who comes to one’s home should be turned out and asked what was the big deal in accepting a cake.

In his response, Surendran said Kumar has been behaving like this ever since he lost the Lok Sabha polls as the visit to the Mayor had no other motives.

--IANS

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Source: IANS