Kerala’s opposition leader and Marxist veteran VS Achuthanandan courted familiar trouble on Sunday, making a sexually offensive remark against former CPI(M) leader Sindhu Joy who had left the party to join the Congress before the assembly polls last year.
“Today the situation is that she (Joy) has been thrown out by the Congress, just like a woman of loose character dumped after a few years of use,” the 88-year-old former chief minister told journalists in Kochi.
His remark, made to buttress his argument that MLA R Selvaraj, who resigned recently, would meet a similar fate, evoked criticism from all quarters including his party.
Joy said, “I am an unmarried woman with no parents. This type of remark will have an adverse effect on my future. Achuthanandan should have remembered he also has a daughter.”
CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member TN Seema said, “It was not proper for VS to make a statement like this.”
State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala termed Achuthanandan’s statement unfortunate.
This is not the first time Achuthanandan has landed in trouble for such remarks. In the run-up to the assembly polls, he had faced allegations of character assassination after a similar comment against his Congress opponent Lathika Subhash.
Achuthanandan later clarified that his remarks were misinterpreted.
With inputs from PTI