Prakash Javadekar said that chargesheet in the Mr Surendran case is "bogus".
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said that the chargesheet filed against Kerala's BJP unit president K Surendran in a bribery case is the state government doing politics of vengeance.
"Accused in the SNC Lavlin corruption scam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is doing politics of vengeance. He has filed a bogus chargesheet in the Mr Surendran case and we will prove it in Court," he said.
Pointing to the timing of the filing of the chargesheet by the Crime Branch, the BJP leader accused that the development against Mr Surendran came four days later after he named the latter of continuing to lead the State party unit.
"The timing of the chargesheet is also important. Both the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and (UDF) planned to defame BJP. But the chargesheet came four days after I made an announcement that Mr Surendran will continue to lead the party," he said.
Earlier in the day, the Crime Branch investigating the Manjeswaram election bribery case filed a chargesheet at the Kasaragod sessions court against Bharatiya Janata Party State president K Surendran and five other party leaders.
The case against them is that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate K Sundara was bribed and threatened to withdraw his candidature from Manjeswaram in the past Assembly polls.
Reacting to the chargesheet, Prakash Javadekar said, "And what is the case? The complainant has filed his nomination but withdrawn, came to the BJP office, held a press conference, and declared support for Surendran. And now this is the case. This instance shows how the politics of vengeance is being played in Kerala."
"What we are saying is that the growing popularity of BJP in Kerala and because UDF and LDF are one or the same. People responding now more to BJP. LDF and UDF are unsettled and they are doing vindictive politics. We condemn this politics of vengeance," he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)