Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 2 (IANS): The ongoing spat between Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state Congress President Mullapally Ramachandran took a personal turn on Thursday.

The two have had several rounds of sparring over the past few years with their rivalry dating back decades as Ramachandran was a five-term MP from the Kannur Lok Sabha seat in what is the home turf of Vijayan.

Vijayan, in the past two days, has been claiming that with Assembly elections to take place on April 6, a few 'bombs', in the form of canards against his government, can be expected, and asked about this, Ramachandran, on Wednesday, said it could be anything, including fresh action by central agencies.

This statement irked Vijayan, who at his routine election campaign press meet on Thursday, took on Ramachandran, saying that he knew that Ramachandran, during the UPA rule was the Union Minister of State for Home, but he never knew that "he was a deputy to present Union Home Minister Amit Shah".

"When he (Ramachandran) was the Minister, for some time, he was after me. But nothing happened to Pinarayi Vijayan and I am sitting here even now," said a peeved Vijayan.

Hitting back, Ramachandran said Vijayan has no moral ground to take him on, as he has been "loyal" to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah.

"Hours after former Communist leader T.P. Chandrasekheran was hacked to death (in 2012), when I said that this is the work of the CPI-M, Vijayan, who was then the state party Secretary, blew his top. I had then itself said that there were big sharks involved in the murder and they were not arrested.

"I am very sure that if there is a proper CBI probe without the interference of either Modi or Shah, the big sharks will be in the net," he said, adding that when he served as Union Minister, he did his job in the most proper way and according to the Constitution.