Achu was confident that as the people of Puthuppally know Oommen Chandy's family very well, they won't believe such false propaganda.
Achu Oommen with the late Oommen Chandy. (Achu Oommen/ Instagram)
On Saturday, 26 August, former Kerala chief minister late Oommen Chandy’s daughter Achu Oommen strongly condemned the ongoing cyber attacks against her in the backdrop of the upcoming Puthuppally bypoll and said that it was to divert attention from the current issues of “corruption and inflation” in the state.
Achu said that she had been working as a content creator in the fashion and travel sector for a few years and photos taken as part of her job were misused on cyber platforms with a deliberate intention to malign her father’s reputation.
“Oommen Chandy was a leader who was hunted down (by political opponents) when he was alive. After his death, his children are being targetted,” she told reporters in Puthuppally.
She said that she had not made any gain in her personal life by misusing her father’s name.
As the campaign has intensified in Puthuppally where a by-election is scheduled on 5 September, the personal lives of candidates, their close relatives, and assets are being made the topic of discussion by some online media groups.
Achu said that as the people of Puthuppally know Oommen Chandy’s family very well, they won’t believe such false propaganda.
Achu’s brother Chandy Oommen is the Congress-UDF candidate in Puthuppally.
“Are my dresses and sandals the issues of Kerala now? If such campaigns are not there, they (authorities) would have to give answers to many other issues. So, the ongoing propaganda is to divert attention from corruption and inflation, which the state is suffering from,” she stated.
When asked whether she would initiate any legal measures against such cyber campaigners, Achu said she wouldn’t lodge any complaints against such “faceless” people.
Meanwhile, the Congress alleged that the ruling CPI(M) activists were behind such cyber attacks against Chandy’s family.
They also accused the party leadership of having full knowledge about it.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly VD Satheesan strongly condemned the cyber attacks and alleged that the Marxist party was propagating Achu’s photos with malicious captions.
“Achu is working as a content creator. The photos she posted on her Instagram account, as part of her job, are propagated by the cyber goons of the CPI(M) with filthy captions,” he alleged in a statement.
They were insulting her without giving a consideration that she was the daughter of late Chandy, he further said, adding that the ruling party would fail in the Puthuppally by-election despite whatever propaganda is being unleashed by them.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) candidate Jaick C Thomas criticised the cyber attacks against Achu and said that personal insults and humiliation against anyone could not be accepted.
Whether it was against the former chief minister’s daughter or against the present chief minister’s daughter, it cannot be accepted, he added.
A by-election was necessitated in Puthuppally following the demise of former chief minister Oommen Chandy last month.
(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)
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