Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan denies engaging PR agency

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday denied the reports that he had engaged a professional public relations agency for publishing his interview in a newspaper.

A daily that recently carried an interview of Vijayan had clarified that certain controversial portions regarding smuggling cases through the Karippur airport were included in the interview as requested by a public relation's agency which offered the interview.

Vijayan said that former CPI(M) MLA T K Devakumar's son T D Subaramanian told him that the newspaper wanted to carry his interview and hence he gave the interview. "Neither me, nor my government had sought the service of any public relation's agency for any such purposes," Vijayan told reporters.

While the newspaper said in a clarification that two representatives of the PR agency were also present during the interview in Delhi, Vijayan said that he was under the impression that those were associated with the newspaper only.

He didn't respond to the opposition Congress' demand to take legal action against those responsible for including the controversial portion in the interview, if that was without his permission.

The newspaper's clarification that a PR agency offered Vijayan's interview had caused much embarrassment to Vijayan as he had earlier strongly denied the allegations that he was seeking service of PR agencies for image building.