Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, here on Sunday, slammed the opposition for raking up the Sprinklr data 'scam' when the state was passing through difficult times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Reacting to the Opposition Congress onslaught, Vijayan, in his weekly TV interaction, said, "The opposition has been after the government, since we have been getting applause for the way we handled Covid-19. Now they want to show us in poor light. The people know everything. I will not go after this controversy and I will continue my work."

The data scam is linked to transfer of Covid-19 information to a US-based PR and marketing firm Sprinklr. It was raised by the Congress and P.T. Thomas, a party MLA, later dragged the name of Vijayan's daughter who owns an IT firm based in Bengaluru.

On Sunday CPI(M) politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai came to Vijayan's defence. "During extraordinary times, extraordinary decisions will have to be taken. Right now we are facing and fighting a pandemic. The need of the hour is to wait as we have to fight Covid-19. Kerala has now become the cynosure of the world on how it tackled it. So let's wait, we will discuss all issues at an appropriate time," said Pillai.

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) convenor and senior CPI-M leader A. Vijayaraghavan also slammed the Congress-led opposition for spreading canards.

"The Opposition is playing cheap politics at a time when the state and people are passing through tough times and the government is doing everything to ease their stress. This is not acceptable," said Vijayaraghavan.