Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 17 (IANS): State Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran on Saturday said the latest example of the autocratic style of functioning of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan both in the government and the party has come under fire after the party's list of the two Rajya Sabha candidates was announced on Friday.

John Brittas, managing director of Kairali TV, the party backed TV channel and V. Sivadasan, were cleared by the party as the nominees for the two Rajya Sabha seats.

"While one of them handled the PR exercise of building the brand image of Vijayan, the other was in charge of the social media and both have been rewarded for their work. This has come under severe criticism not just in the party but also among the allies, but none of them wish to bell the cat for want of guts," said Ramachandran.

He said when State Ministers Thomas Issac, G. Sudhakaran, A.K. Balan, E.P. Jayarajan and P. Raveendranath failed to get a ticket for the April 6 assembly polls and top leaders like former party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, present acting secretary A. Vijayaraghavan, P.Jayarajan were all overlooked besides other senior leaders the sparks began to fly from Kannur and will slowly spread across the state.

"These two who have been selected to the Rajya Sabha are close to Vijayan, his family and also hail from his home district Kannur and this has caused heartburn, especially among the leaders in the southern and central districts of the state. This is a clear signal that he will eliminate all those whom he doesn't like," said Ramachandran. Once the votes are counted on May 2, the so called image of Vijayan will come crashing down, he added.