Kochi, May 5 (IANS): Kerala's Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan on Thursday slammed the "double standards" adopted by the media while covering the developments in the run-up to the crucial May 31 Thrikkakara Assembly bypoll.

The state Congress president said that the media plays "naughty" and blows things out of proportion when reporting events in the Congress, but remains soft on the CPI-M. This has to be stopped.

"We, the Congress announced our candidate in less than 24 hours after the poll date was announced. But even after three days, even though the CPI-M candidate's name was revealed, it was pulled back, and still there is no sight of their candidate. It is a known secret that there is a tussle between the Ernakulam district CPI-M leaders and the state leadership, but no media has reported that," Satheesan told the media.

"Had such an incident taken place in the Congress, you (media) would have come up with creative tag lines, such as "total disarray in Congress" and what not, but your tag line for the CPI-M candidate is "CPI-M candidate remains a suspense". This is nothing but double standards by you and this should be stopped," said Satheesan.

He said of late it is a practise to reach the house of a particular leader every day in the morning for comments (he did not name but dropped enough hints that this leader was estranged Congress leader K.V.Thomas) and then reporting it in a big way. "From now on please don't ask for our comments to what that person has said," he asserted.

"We all know how Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the CPI-M leaders behave with the media, we will never do that, but out decency should not be seen as our weakness. We expect that you will treat the Left and us on the same platform," added Satheesan.

Sudhakaran said that his party should be commended and appreciated for deciding its candidate in the shortest possible time unlike the CPI-M.