Kerala Assembly elections: Pinarayi Vijayan slams Telangana CM Revanth Reddy for ‘disparaging’ State

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has slammed his Telangana counterpart, Revanth Reddy, for “disparaging the people of Kerala” by broadcasting “misinformed and slanderous” comments about the State.”

At a campaign speech in Thiruvananthapuram recently, Mr. Reddy had borrowed a popular line from a Malayalam blockbuster Narasimham starring Mohanlal — “Nee po mone Dinesha” – to tell Mr Vijayan, somewhat dismissively, that the latter’s “expiry date has passed and time is over”. Mr Reddy also stated that Kerala was a State in decline, plagued by corruption, administrative inefficiency and nepotism. 

In a post on Facebook and X on Friday, Mr Vijayan riposted that the NITI Aayog, India’s apex policy think tank, ranked Kerala as the least corrupt State in the country and Telangana, the sixth most graft-ridden State. Mr Vijayan stated that NITI Aayog ranked Kerala first in the National Sustainable Development Index (2023-24) with 79 points and Telangana sixth. 

Mr Vijayan noted that NITI Aayog’s national multidimensional poverty index ranked Kerala as the least poverty-affected State in the country (0.55 per cent). In contrast, NITI Ayog has stated that an estimated 5.88 per cent of the Telangana population suffered crushing poverty. 

“Kerala has eradicated extreme poverty. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has promised total eradication of multidimensional poverty by 2030. Does the Telengana government have any comparable plans to uplift the needy and suffering masses?” he asked. 

Mr Vijayan sought to draw a stark comparison between Kerala’s “extensive” social welfare system, including its LIFE Housing Mission for the homeless and the Telangana government’s “demolition drives targeting marginalised communities, including Muslims” (at Khammam and Shastripuram in February 2026). 

Mr Vijayan accused Mr Reddy of “refusing to face the reality” of Kerala’s peak social development and high physical quality-of-life indexes. “Somebody seemed to have misled him about Kerala. Mr Reddy seeks to lecture Kerala on development and social security, while his government bulldozes the dwellings of poverty-stricken families struggling to make ends meet in Telengana”, he said. 

Comparison ‘indecorous’

Mr Vijayan noted that it was “indecorous” to compare two States. However, he said, Mr Reddy’s attempt to mask Telangana’s development and social security “downsides by maligning Kerala” had compelled him to set the record straight. 

Mr Vijayan reeled off national statistics to showcase Kerala’s 95.3 per cent literacy rate compared to Telangana’s 76.9 per cent, and its infant mortality rate (one in 5,000), surpassing that of the US (5.6 in 1,000). “Telangana’s IMR is four times that of Kerala”, Mr Vijayan said. 

Mr Vijayan said the Telangana government repeatedly defaulted on salaries and pensions, including social welfare pensions, but had loosened its purse strings for promotional newspaper advertisements. Mr Vijayan asked Mr Reddy to explain why he sent a team from his Telangana to study Kerala’s successful digitalisation of land records if he thought the LDF government was awful.