{"id":9793,"date":"2026-04-07T07:02:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=9793"},"modified":"2026-04-07T07:02:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:02:38","slug":"130078225-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=9793","title":{"rendered":"Kerala elections: Venugopal writes to CM Vijayan, alleges &#8216;deal&#8217; with BJP; questions &#8216;breakfast meeting&#8217; with Sitharaman | India News &#8211; The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130078225,imgsize-138090,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/130078225.jpg\" alt=\"Kerala elections: Venugopal writes to CM Vijayan, alleges 'deal' with BJP; questions 'breakfast meeting' with Sitharaman\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEW DELHI: Congress leader Kc Venugopal on Tuesday wrote an open letter to Kerala chief minister <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/pinarayi-vijayan\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Pinarayi Vijayan<\/a>, posing &#8217;10 questions&#8217; on what he alleged were covert understandings between the ruling Left and the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/bjp\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">BJP<\/a>.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>In his letter, Venugopal said the questions reflect what is being widely discussed on the ground and asked Vijayan to respond.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/>&#8220;As Kerala once again stands at the threshold of an election, there remain a number of questions in the minds of the people regarding the legacy of your ten-year rule,&#8221; Venugopal said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"10\"\/>A key focus of the letter was Vijayan\u2019s meetings with senior BJP leaders. Venugopal asked: &#8220;What was the agenda behind your meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi, excluding officials? Was that where the &#8216;deal&#8217; was struck?&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>He raised similar questions over a breakfast meeting with Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Kerala House and interactions with Union minister Nitin Gadkari, asking whether these meetings were part of any &#8220;understanding&#8221; with the BJP.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>The Congress leader questioned the state government\u2019s move to implement the PM SHRI scheme despite opposition from CPI leaders within the Left Democratic Front (LDF). &#8220;What \u2018deal\u2019 was behind this? Whose interests were you protecting\u2026 while keeping your own coalition partners in the dark?&#8221; he asked.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>Venugopal also alleged that decisions related to labour codes were taken &#8220;in extreme secrecy&#8221; without consulting allies, and flagged the increase in trade union registration fees, asking whom the move was meant to &#8220;satisfy&#8221;.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>The letter also referred to ongoing and past cases. On the SNC-Lavalin case, Venugopal questioned repeated adjournments in the Supreme Court, asking whether they were linked to a &#8220;deal&#8221; with the Centre. He also cited the Exalogic Solutions case and the gold and dollar smuggling cases, questioning why probes had &#8220;stalled midway&#8221; and whether there had been any intervention.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/>He further raised the issue of senior police officer M R Ajith Kumar and alleged links with RSS leaders, and referred to an alleged meeting between Vijayan and BJP leaders at a hotel, asking if the chief minister would disclose the details.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"25\"\/>The letter comes amid an intense contest between the CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF for the 140-seat Kerala Assembly. The state is expected to go to polls in 2026.<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/kerala-elections-venugopal-writes-to-cm-vijayan-alleges-deal-with-bjp-questions-breakfast-meeting-with-sitharaman\/articleshow\/130078225.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI: Congress leader Kc Venugopal on Tuesday wrote an open letter to Kerala chief&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1122,724,24483,723,719,720,721,24482,7310,6816,722],"class_list":["post-9793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bjp","tag-breaking-news","tag-congress-led-udf","tag-google-news","tag-india","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-kc-venugopal","tag-kerala-elections","tag-pinarayi-vijayan","tag-today-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}