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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of wilfully disregarding COVID-19 protocol and endangering public safety.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muralidharan alleged that Mr. Vijayan had contracted COVID-19 on April 4. However, he had concealed his medical condition and campaigned on April 5. On April 6, the Chief Minister and his family had turned up with an entourage of party workers and neighbours to vote.
When diagnosed with COVID-19, Mr. Vijayan travelled to the hospital in a group. Mr. Vijayan repeated the pattern when hospital authorities discharged him. Mr. Vijayan’s wife, who was COVID positive, travelled in the same car with him home, Mr. Muralidharan alleged.
The CM, who sermonised on observing the pandemic era laws of public conduct, had infringed them.
The LDF government had brazenly used pandemic control laws to prosecute political opponents during protests. It had slapped fines on ordinary people for forgetting to wear masks. However, the law did not seem to apply for Mr. Vijayan. The police and Revenue authorities looked the other way when the CM broke the law, he said.
Mr. Muralidharan said Health Minister K. K. Shylaja, who routinely aired COVID-19 counsel from her pulpit, owed the public an explanation.
Ms. Shylaja accused Mr. Muralidharan of attempting to stoke controversy by distorting facts. The CM had suffered from mild symptoms of COVID-19. He quarantined himself promptly and got hospitalised. The CM also publicly urged those he had met to quarantine and undergo tests. She said there was no merit in the Union Minister’s alleged insinuations.
