Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday, April 4 slammed the Congress party and said that they were scared of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after flags of the grand old party and its ally, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), were missing from Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow in Wayanad ahead of his nomination filing. 

Pinarayi Vijayan said that while the Congress wants IUML’s votes, they are not willing to acknowledge the importance of the Muslim League’s flag. The CM alleged that the Congress has fallen so low that they are “afraid of communal forces”. 

The context for the statements made by the Kerala CM goes back to Rahul Gandhi’s 2019 Lok Sabha campaign in Wayanad, during which IUML flags were present in large numbers, even outnumbering that of Congress flags. Right-wing supporters used pictures from the rally to create a narrative that Pakistan flags were used during Rahul Gandhi’s campaign. This was, however, fact-checked and busted immediately after.

Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that the Congress was trying to erase the history behind their flags, that too ahead of a crucial election against the BJP.

Mentioning the 2019 incident, he said, “At least some of the people expected Congress leaders to say it’s the flag of a party that also represents Indian citizens. But that did not happen in 2019. And this time, they chose to hide not only the IUML flag but their own flag as well. How can such a party lead the struggle against the Sangh Parivar?” he asked.