Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 16 (IANS): The Congress on Friday alleged that 20,913 deaths have not been included in the Covid toll list in Kerala and the Pinarayi Vijayan government was an abject failure in handling the pandemic.

Speaking to the media here at the party headquarters, Congress MP, Benny Behanan said the figures provided by Vijayan in his daily statement on Thursday shows 15,025 Covid deaths.

"This is a grossly understated figure and we have found out that while the state government comes out with daily Covid deaths, the various local bodies also does the same and across the state what we have found out is that Vijayan's figures are 2.4 per cent less than the figures provided by the local bodies," said Behanan.

"I am starting a Covid death count campaign through the social media of mine and all can register their figures of Covid deaths, which have not been accounted by the state government.

"We are going with this campaign to ensure that whenever the compensation is announced for Covid deaths, all those who are left out from the state government list are included and they get the compensation," said Behanan.

Behanan also slammed Vijayan for the manner in which he went around lauding the performance of his government in tackling Covid.

"Even before the first wave began, Vijayan spoke of having handled the pandemic and highlighted the way it was done through 41 national media organisations. And today the situation is such that while there 41,751 new Covid cases in the country on Thursday, Kerala accounted for 15,637 cases.

"While states like Tamil Nadu with a test positivity rate of 2 per cent and Maharashtra with 4 per cent, Kerala has been unable to bring it down under 10 per cent and yet Vijayan claims Kerala is the best and this is nothing but taking people for a ride," added Behanan.