The internal group war in the CPI(M) reached new heights on Saturday as EP Jayarajan, former Minister and Kannur strongman of the party was ousted as the Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener and another former Minister TP Ramakrishnan, a sidekick of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was appointed to the coveted post.
The removal of Jayarajan and appointment of Ramakrishnan was announced by party’s Kerala state secretary M V Govindan while briefing the media after the two-day long State Committee meet of the party held at Thiruvananthapuram.
Jayarajan’s ouster from the LDF convener is a sequel to his meeting with Prakash Javadekar, the BJP leader who is in charge of party’s Kerala affairs. Sobha Surendran, a senior BJP leader had disclosed that Jayarajan, a former industries minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan Government had held parleys with Javadekar during the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Govindan did not disclose the reason for Jayarajan’s removal in an unambiguous manner other than saying that the latter was not competent enough to continue as convener of the LDF. But Govindan stated that Jayarajan’s meetings with Javadekar was one of the reasons that created a lot of controversy.
“I’ll react to the decision at the appropriate time,” Jayarajan told the media persons. In yet another development, the CPI(M) gave a tight slap on the face of the CPI, its poor cousins, for that party’s demand to oust movie actor Mukesh MLA from the party as well as the membership of the legislative assembly. Annie Raja, former flame of the CPI, had demanded the expulsion of Mukesh as MLA against whom many female artists have raised serious charges of rape, sexual abuse and misdemeanor. Mukesh managed to get anticipatory bail from the district sessions judge in Kochi against possible arrest by Kochi City Police and has gone underground since then.
Binoy Viswam, the CPI Kerala secretary and the intellectual face of the Communist movement, had called on chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday and demanded that Mukesh should be asked to resign as MLA. “Our learned opinion is that there is no need for Mukesh to resign as MLA in connection with some allegations. Some artists have accused him of misbehaving with them but these charges are yet to be proved in a court of law. If the court acquits him of all charges, are there any mechanism in the statute books to take back his resignation letter and reinstate him as MLA?” asked Govindan. Close CPI(M) observers like P Sujathan are of the view that the removal of Jayarajan would create a lot of ripples in the CPI(M) as well as in Kefala politics. “But I am not sure whether it would have any repercussions in the BJP in Kerala.
This is because the present BJP leadership in the State is incapable of accommodating him in the party as there are no leaders in the party capable of winning even panchayat election. Jayarajan is a seasoned political leader. Moreover, if rubbed the wrong way, he can put all CPI(M) leaders including Vijayan in major embarrassment,” said Sujathan.
Jayarajan being a member of the central committee of the party, only the polit bureau members are competent to take further decisions like ousting him from the primary membership of the CPI(M).
