Congress high command behind Aranmula project: Rajagopal

BJP leader and former Union Minister O Rajagopal has said that the Congress High Command is behind the controversial Aranmula airport project.

Inaugurating the ‘aikya changala’, an agitation by hundreds of BJP workers against the Aranmula airport project in the town here on Friday, O Rajagopal alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son-in-law Robert Vadra were the hidden hands behind the project.

He said that the clout of the High Command made possible the much-needed clearances for the project including that of the Defence and Environment Ministries.

The hassle-free clearances for the project, including bypassing the objections raised by some government agencies, are under the interference of the powerful lobby working under the Congress High Command, he said.

The BJP leader said that the remark of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a news conference in Mumbai recently that he had awarded contracts for the coal blocks, involving a graft to the tune of Rs 1.82 lakh crore to a list of companies given by political secretary to Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, was relevant in the airport project too.

He warned of backlash against the Central and the state governments in the issue of the airport project as the people across the state were against the airport, which would have a devastating effect on the Aranmula heritage village and its ecology and environment.

BJP district president V N Unni presided over the function.

Party state vice-president Pratapachandra Varma, regional president A G Unnikrishnan, general secretaries Pradeep Cherukol and Ashokan Kulanada also spoke.