Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, CPI(M) veteran V S Achutanandan, CPI(M) Polit bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan, former Union minister O Rajagopal and former Indian cricketer Sreesanth are among those in the fray.
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“All I am saying is that the Leader of Opposition should stop spreading baseless allegations”.
Achuthanandan, at an election rally in Kannur earlier this week, said there were as many as 31 cases of corruption registered against the chief minister.
This had fallen on deaf ears and so the case had been filed, Chandy said.
The chief minister approached the Thiruvananthapuram Additional District Court in this connection, seeking Rs one lakh as compensation from Achuthanandan over the “baseless, malicious” charges against him.
The Chief Minister, who is making the 11th bid from the constituency, was greeted by 11 children with roses.
Chandy, who is contesting as the Congress-UDF candidate from Puthupally, said the defamatory statement was “scandalous, libellous and showers sarcasm and contempt on the plaintiff”.
93-year-old Achuthanandan, the CPI(M)-LDF candidate from Malampuzha, had alleged that there were 136 cases in various courts against Chandy and some of his ministerial colleagues.
In his defamation suit, Chandy said that the opposition leader had purposefully made the allegations knowing that they were untrue.
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The court also rejected Chandy’s counsel’s plea that further action in the case be taken soon and VS be restricted from giving false statements against his party.
