Thiruvananthapuram, The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday witnessed a verbal duel between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala over what the latter called "government jobs through the backdoor".

During Zero Hour, Chennithala referred to a letter written by noted film director and Kerala Chalachithra Academy Chair Kamal to Culture Minister AK Balan to provide permanent jobs to a few academy officials working on temporary basis.

Interestingly, Kamal had mentioned that these employees were "hard-core Left sympathisers" and that they be provided permanent jobs in the academy.

"Is being a Left sympathiser a criterion to get a permanent government job? This government is mired in corruption from neck to toe and also given a go-by to all moralities. It is also ensuring backdoor appointments in government departments to party workers and sympathisers. This is not acceptable and the opposition will take legal recourse," the Congress leader said.

Responding strongly to the charge, the Chief Minister said that his LDF government was not like the previous UDF one. He denied that government jobs in Kerala were provided to Left sympathisers or workers.

"Balan has himself responded to the Academy Chairman's letter by saying that no government jobs or postings in Kerala are based on caste, creed, colour, or politics of anyone."

Taking a dig at the opposition, Vijayan said that the state's people had slapped the opposition in the face in the recent local body elections.

"The opposition does not have any self-respect as voters gave it a tight slap in the local body polls, which the LDF won by a massive mandate. This victory will be repeated in the ensuing Assembly elections," the Chief Minister said.

Meanwhile, the opposition also protested against what it called the targeting of its legislators by the government through false cases.

"The government is trying to settle scores with the opposition by foisting false cases on our MLAs. VD Satheeshan and PT Thomas are being unnecessarily targeted and we will fight against this injustice both in and outside the House," Chennithala said.