Kerala  Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday, April 21, criticised Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi over the donation that her husband’s company DLF gave to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through electoral bonds. Pinarayi made this comment in response to Priyanka Gandhi's question about why the BJP government did not arrest him despite allegations of corruption against him.

A day earlier, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi slammed Pinarayi for criticising Rahul Gandhi rather than the BJP. She was talking in a public meeting in Pathanamthitta as part of the election campaign of United Democratic Front (UDF)’s Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha Candidate Anto Antony. “Your Chief Minister is compromised. He attacks only my brother and the Congress party. He never attacks the BJP. His name came up in several scams, LIFE mission, Gold scam and so many scams.  But how come Narendra Modi’s BJP government never puts a case on him, never raids him and no action is taken on him?” Priyanka asked.

Speaking to the media, Pinarayi said, “We know who is Priyanka Gandhi, who is her husband, how the DLF company connected to them, the allegations related to it, how Rs 170 crore went to BJP’s hand as an electoral bond and how they were excluded from the case. You should thank them directly for not arresting those who should have been arrested instead of asking why I was not arrested.”

In September 2018, the Haryana police filed a case against Priyanka’s husband and businessman Robert Vadra and real estate conglomerate DLF Group, among others, alleging corruption and fraud in land deals in Gurugram. Five years later in 2023, the state BJP government told the High Court that it had found no violations in the deals. After the Election Commission released the electoral bond data, it showed the DLF group had donated Rs 170 crore to the BJP between October 2019 and November 2022.