he ego clash within the Kerala CPM’s “Kannur lobby” has assumed larger political dimensions with the state party secretary and the chief minister coming out openly against former district secretary P. Jayarajan.
This will have further ramifications in the Malabar region as Jayarajan was considered the poster boy of brand “Kannur communism” till the recent Lok Sabha elections, where he contested from the Vadakara constituency.
Jayarajan, who had survived an attempt on his life by RSS goons not so long ago, was put up as a “living martyr of murder politics” of which, ironically, the Kannur brand is famous for. His loss by over 80,000 votes was a shocker to the CPM, though not unexpected to the people belonging to the region.
Now there is a clamor among the supporters of Jayarajan, a sort of cult figure among the young party cadre in Kannur, to bring him back as district secretary or even head of the proposed Kerala Bank.
His cyber followers, known as the “PJ Army”, eulogize him and his family’s “communist lifestyle” compared to that of many other party leaders from the area, something appreciated by CPM followers and sympathizers alike.
This has immensely annoyed both chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, especially in the wake of rape allegations against the latter’s elder son, who is reportedly on the run.