Rahul remains 'Amul baby', says Achuthanandan

Thiruvananthapuram: Hitting out at the Congress President for deciding to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kerala, Communist veteran and former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Monday said his description of Rahul Gandhi as an 'Amul baby' was still relevant.

In his Facebook post, the 95-year-old Marxist, the only living Communist leader who walked out of the National Council of the Communist Party of India in 1964 to form the CPI-M, wrote that it was not without reason that he dubbed Gandhi an 'Amul baby' in April 2011.

"I did not call him like that without a reason. I did it because of the childishness that Rahul Gandhi showed in politics. And today, with Rahul Gandhi deciding to contest from Wayanad, that statement is still relevant.

"Today, when he (Gandhi) is reaching middle age, his childishness continues at a time when the country is facing the biggest problem of the menacing BJP. The need of the hour is to fight them.

"But instead of joining hands with secular forces, Gandhi, who is today the final word in the Congress, has not joined ranks with the AAP in Delhi and down south where the CPI-M is taking on the BJP he has decided to fight the Left and has taken the Wayanad Ghat road to contest," said Achuthanandan.

"In other words, it's like cutting the branch of the tree on which one is sitting. Hence I feel that what I said about him years back is still relevant."

Gandhi will be contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Wayanad too apart from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. He will file his nomination from Wayanad on Thursday.