The Kerala CPI(M) top brass is under fire from within the party for its decision to include five Independents, whose credentials as leftists are still in doubt, in its list of 15 candidates for the 16th lok Sabha election from the State.
It has also given the party’s opponents the opportunity to ridicule it for fielding “guest artistes”. What is more serious as far as the party cadres are concerned is the fact that three of these Independents were Congressmen till some days ago while one, a former IAS officer, is suspected of having Congress links. The fifth Independent, a movie star, is said to be a former worker of the RSP, a party that had left the CPI(M)-left lDF a week ago.
The criticisms against the Marxist top brass with regard to the selection of candidates for the lS polls do not end there. Even several committees of the party are critical of leadership’s decision to field certain unpopular candidates in particular constituencies where they are sure to receive serious setbacks.
“I think our State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan will go down in history as the man who presided over an election committee that drew up the worst candidates’ list in the electoral history of Kerala,” said a senior member of the CPI(M) district committee in Kozhikode, which had objected to the fielding of DYFI leader AM Shamseer as party candidate in Vadakara.
The Independents the party has fielded in Pathanamthitta, Idukki and Ponnani are former Congressmen Peelipose Thomas, Joyce George and V Abdul Rahman respectively. “These are not people who had left Congress a long time back and proved their
loyalty to the left. They left the Congress just recently and became CPI(M)’s candidates straightaway,” he said.