Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 11 (IANS): Congress president of Kerala, K. Sudhakaran on Saturday said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is greatly indebted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for his second term.

He was speaking at the meeting of the newly constituted Thiruvananthapuram district Congress committee.

"The reason for him getting a second term in office here, is because of the very strong anti-Congress position of the BJP. The BJP government, despite getting several opportunities to tie up the Vijayan government did nothing, even when various national agencies could have easily done it. Just look how many times has the verdict in the SNC Lavalin case from the apex court been postponed and the reason for this is because the stand taken by the Centre towards the CBI which is pursuing the case and all knows why this is happening," said Sudhakaran.

Sudhakaran is the Congress MP from Kannur Lok Sabha seat and was recently appointed as the state president of the party, directly by the high command.

He is known for his tirades against the CPI-M at his home turf in Kannur, considered the CPI-M citadel and is currently facing the heat from the erstwhile faction managers - Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala, but not one to go down easily, he is determined to give the Congress party here a new face and has already said his wish is to convert it into a semi cadre party.

"To take on the twin power of the hand in glove CPI-M and the BJP here, the Congress party has to work hard and my aim is to achieve that," added Sudhakaran.

"The latest example of these two parties working together is the way on how the RSS ideologues' books are now being taught at the Kannur University. To keep the RSS together, the CPI-M with the knowledge of everyone concerned allowed for the use of these books in the newly started MA course at a college in Kannur University," said Sudhakaran.