An “off-the-record” claim by Kerala Congress president K. Sudhakaran that he had “kicked” Pinarayi Vijayan during their college days in Kannur over half a century ago has snowballed into a slugfest with the chief minister suggesting that his political adversary may have once plotted to kidnap his children.

Newly elected state Congress chief Sudhakaran, known for his abrasiveness and tough-speak, has been quoted in the latest issue of the a Malayalam magazine as saying in an interview: “I gave him (Vijayan) one big kick. Then KSU (the Congress-affiliated Kerala Students’ Union) activists thrashed him to pulp.”

Although Sudhakaran later came out to say that he had told the interviewer “three times” that this comment was “off the record” and that the publication had “cheated” him by printing it, the claim soon opened up a can of worms with the two leaders from bitterly opposed alliances trading allegations dating back to their rookie days in politically volatile Kannur.

Vijayan, 76, and Sudhakaran, 73, were students and members of rival unions at Brennen College in Thalassery in Kannur district. Now known as Government Brennen College, the campus has produced many politicians who have dominated the Kerala landscape.

As Vijayan and Surendran got entangled in a war of words in which each called the other “mafia leader”, the CPM and the Congress, fresh from an electoral face-off, also jumped into the ring.

At his daily media conference on Friday, Vijayan rubbished Sudhakaran’s claim as a “dream”.

“He might have dreamt about hitting me. But that did not happen,” the chief minister said, recalling his days as a leader of the Kerala Students Federation, which later became the Students Federation of India (SFI), while Sudhakaran was part of the Kerala Students Union.

Vijayan said he had gone to the Brennen campus over a boycott of the university exams although he had passed out by then.

“I was a state leader of the KSF when we decided to boycott exams. But the KSU objected (to the boycott). I was trying my best not to get involved in the issue since I was not a student anymore. But when I sensed the possibility of violence, I made a clapping sound with my palms.

“Just then a KSU leader named Balan asked me not to harm Sudhakaran (who was there). I asked him to take him (Sudhakaran) away. That is what had happened,” Vijayan said.

Vijayan claimed a late Congress leader who had been Sudhakaran’s “financier and close ally” had warned the CPM leader that his children were in danger of being kidnapped.

“He told me that Sudhakaran had planned to kidnap my children,” Vijayan said, but did not name the Congress leader who had made the claim.

“I didn’t tell this to anybody. I didn’t even tell my wife about this. She used to take our children to school everyday on her way to the institution where she taught,” Vijayan said.

K. Sudhakaran Telegraph picture

The chief minister then quoted Congress leaders P. Ramakrishnan and Mambaram Divakaran, who had accused Sudhakaran of being corrupt and also of eliminating his rivals.

Vijayan also accused Sudhakaran of misappropriating party funds.

“Three years ago he had said, ‘If I feel I can go with the BJP, I will do so’,” Vijayan taunted Sudhakaran.

Sudhakaran said on Saturday: “Vijayan made so many allegations. It was a media conference of the chief minister. We saw the real Pinarayi Vijayan yesterday (Friday), who came out of the PR agency’s cover. His stance was that of a political criminal. I cannot reply like him. My post and stature does not allow me to stoop to his level,” the Congress leader said.

“Vijayan alleged that a late friend of mine had told him that I had planned to kidnap Vijayan’s children. Why has he not revealed the details, why has he not complained to the police? He said he had not revealed it to anyone. Not even to his wife. Usually, if there is any threat against kids, one will inform the mother as they are always there to protect the kids. Is that how a father reacts?”

He accused Vijayan of involvement in two political murders, one of a Jana Sangh worker and the second of an aide with whom the CPM leader had fallen out.

“Here is the FIR copy naming Pinarayi as the first accused in the Vadikkal Ramakrishnan murder case, the first political murder in Kerala,” Sudhakaran said, holding up the purported police document.

The case, however, had long ago been dismissed by the judiciary.

While it is generally assumed that Ramakrishnan was the first political victim in Kerala, killed on April 28, 1969, crime records from Kozhikode show that CPM worker P.P. Sulaiman had been murdered by RSS goons exactly a year earlier, on April 28, 1968.

Sudhakaran on Saturday paraded a Congress leader from Kannur, Kannoth Gopi, who accused Vijayan of trying to kill him with a machete several decades ago, leaving him with a gash on his left hand.