Even before the dust raised in Kerala’s CPI, the second biggest constituent of the state’s Opposition lDF, by the scandal over allegation that the Thiruvananthapuram lok Sabha seat was allocated to an outsider on payment of money has settled, similar scandal has hit its coalition big brother, the CPI(M), also.
Discussions are raging within the CPI(M) and outside over the mysterious allocation of the Ernakulam lok Sabha seat to Christy Fernandez, a former bureaucrat and a Christian who has never had any connection either with the party or with any leftist movement. Marxist leaders are now openly saying that they have no idea of how Christy had become the party’s candidate.
“I had heard many stories about Christy Fernandez. I don’t know through which route he had become candidate. It was said that he was brought in to help (Congress candidate) KV Thomas. It was also said that he was the nominee of a leading industrialist. I don’t want to speak more about it,” trade unionist and CPI(M)’s State committee member MM lawrence told the media.
lawrence’s remarks are nothing new as far as the Christy affair is concerned. There were intense protests in the Ernakulam district committee immediately after the State leadership declared him as the party’s Independent candidate for the Ernakulam seat. However, the matter is now drawing attention again because of the implosion in the CPI over the seat-for-payment scandal.
The Kerala CPI had last Saturday penalised three of its top leaders, including a national executive member, over the allegation of allocation of the Thiruvananthapuram seat to Dr Bennet Abraham, a prominent member of the Church of South India, for payment. The scandal is still fuming in the CPI with the possibility of more heads rolling in the coming days.
“He (Christy Fernandez) is not a communist. He does not even have any communist connections. I had taken up this matter with Christy himself and with the party committees. Irrespective of his background, I also worked for him once he was made the candidate. All I know about him is that he is an untainted person,” lawrence told a TV channel.
left candidate Bennet, who had contested under the official CPI symbol, was pushed to the third place in Thiruvananthapuram behind winner Shashi Tharoor of the Congress and O Rajagopal of the BJP, proving that the left’s strategy of picking a community representative with the goal of vote-bank exploitation had terribly failed just like in Ernakulam.
Sources in the CPI(M)’s Ernakulam district committee said that the Christy affair was not going to end soon as a section was determined to raise it in the next meet of the panel. “This would also come up in the branch, local and area conferences to be held as part of the preparation for the 21st party congress,” said a senior member of the district committee.
Meanwhile, CPI(M)’s Politbureau member MA Baby has contradicted the official position on CPI’s seat-for-payment scandal by admitting that his party cannot wash its hands off the Bennet issue. “Though the Thiruvananthapuram seat belonged to the CPI as per lDF arrangement, there has been communication between them and us on the matter,” Baby told a magazine.
As the leader of the lDF, the Marxist party could not escape the responsibility over a seat allocation in the front, Baby said. However, CPI(M)’s State secretariat member Anathalavattom Anandan stuck to the official position even on Tuesday by insisting that his party had nothing to do with the CPI’s seat allocation process.