Thiruvananthapuram: Slamming the Congress president and the Wayanad candidate Rahul Gandhi for deciding to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kerala, Communist veteran and former chief minister of the state VS Achuthanandan on Monday said his classification of Rahul Gandhi as an 'Amul baby' was still relevant.

After dilly dallying for a fortnight, the Congress finally announced that Rahul Gandhi would try his luck from Wayanad, besides Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, giving the much-needed boost to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) workers in the state.  

In the Facebook post, Achuthanandan, the Marxist 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 called Gandhi an 'Amul baby' in April, 2011.

In 2011, 95-year-old Achuthanandan and Rahul Gandhi had indulged in a war of words after the latter had commented on the former's advancing age. Hitting back, the former Kerala CM had said, "Everyone knows Rahul Gandhi is an 'Amul baby' and he has fielded Amul babies in some constituencies."  

Meanwhile, one of the Communist's official mouthpiece, Deshabhimani, also named the Congress Wayanad candidate as 'Pappu'. The editorial in Deshabhimani, titled ‘This Pappu Strike Will Complete the Collapse of Congress’, said Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest from Kerala happened to be out of ‘fear of failure’ in his traditional stronghold, Amethi.

As Achuthanandan mocked Rahul Gandhi, Wayanad natives too mocked at Gandhi. The natives say a big no to Congress because of the Sabarimala issue. 

Why didn't the Congress support Sabarimala then? Similarly, like the CPM, the Congress too proved its double standards on Sabarimala issue, say many devotees in the district. 

In fact, one of their party workers SP Manju entered the shrine on January 8 and hurt the sentiments of the devotees.