With general elections round the corner the CPI-M has started its political cannibalism once again by swallowing the Ponnani Lok Sabha seat which was contested by the CPI ever since the formulation of the Left Democratic Front in 1980. The CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has categorically told the CPI leaders in a left front meeting that the CPI would be given only three seats instead of four and that the Ponnani Lok Sabha seat would be contested by a common candidate. The CPI refused but the Left Democratic Front convenor and CPI-M state secretariat member Vaikkom Viswan in a press conference held immediately after the left meeting stated that Ponnani seat would be contested by a common candidate. This irritated the CPI leadership and the party came out with the suggestion that it would nominate the common candidate and that he would contest on the CPI symbol. The CPI-M was in no mood to go back from the earlier stated stand and Pinarayi Vijayan ruled out any truce with the CPI leadership.
The Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Madani, who was behind the bars for nine years as a prime accused in the Coimbatore bomb blast case wherein a bomb exploded minutes before BJP leader Shri LK Advani was to address a public gathering, has entered into a new found relationship with the CPI-M and the CPI-M official faction was promoting the candidate nominated by Madani.
The Lashkar commander in South India, Sainuddin, who was recently arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police, has spilled the beans that his daughter had stayed at Abdul Nasser Madanis? residence during her school days and that Madani'swife Sufiya was her local guardian. This clearly points to the company that Madani is keeping even after coming out of the Coimbatore central prison. It may be recalled that the CPI-M leadership had been in the forefront to arrange felicitations to Madani after he was released from Coimbatore central prison with the state Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan personally welcoming Madani back to the mainstream social life of the state. This was indeed a clear pointer on the CPI-M'sattitude towards Madani. Police record shows that Madani being the first to create fissure in the state with volatile speeches attacking Hindu-Muslim unity and coming upon heavily against the Hindu religious beliefs.
The CPI lamented that the CPI-M had even sacrificed the larger interests of left unity and had went ahead with the decision to promote the candidature of Prof. Hussain Randathani who was a nominee of Madani and Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musaliar, a leader of the AP Sunni faction of the Muslim community.
This infuriated the CPI leadership and the party state secretary Veliyam Bhargavan, in a press conference, directly attacked the CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and announced that the left front is in shambles and that the CPI would contest in all the 14 Lok Sabha seats where the CPI-M was contesting. The CPI leadership had given instructions to all the district units of the party to present a separate panel of CPI candidates. Till the time of writing this article there are not many moves between the two parties for a patch up bid but with hectic parleys taking place in Delhi between the CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat and the CPI general secretary AB Bhardhan there are possibilities of a last minute patch up. Left watchers and political pundits are of the opinion that even if a last minute patch up happens the grass root unity between the two parties is as good as gone and there are possibilities of all the CPI candidates losing the elections. The CPI-M has also released a date in all the leading dailies of Kerala which states that the CPI has only 6500 votes in Ponnani constituency and that the PDP of Abdul Nasser Madani has more than 60000 votes in the constituency. This is considered as another direct attack on the CPI to pooh pooh its claims of a political party which can bring in surprises in Ponnani constituency. The CPI-M leadership is clear in its strategy and has given a strong message to all the constituents of the left front except the Kerala Congress (J) that it prefers Islamist organsiations like the PDP and the Jamaet Islami to its traditional partners like the Janata Dal (Secular), CPI and the RSP.
The RSP national general secretary TJ Chandrachoodan while addressing a press conference in Delhi said that Madani and his political party, the PDP, is more fundamentalist than the Indian Union Muslim League and that there are no explanations to the CPI-M theory of more votes to the PDP than the CPI. The left leader categorically told the CPI-M leadership that it would have to take into consideration the secular credentials of the left parties rather than enter into alliance with the Islamist forces.
The CPI-M state secretary has already said that the general elections would be fought in the state on the merits of the LDF government under Achuthanandan. The issue with the CPI is seen by political observers as a shrewd move of Pinarayi Vijayan to put the blame on his bitter political rival Achuthanandan in the party for the crushing defeat the left forces are expecting in the coming elections.
The CPI-M is also facing a tough battle with several intellectuals and fellow travellers of the party coming together against the party leadership and with their decision to contest the general elections against the left candidates. While Pinarayi Vijayan and his associates are enjoying a sizeable majority in the party, sources observed that this is a technical majority not reflective of the actual grass root feelings of the cadres.
The CPI-M rebels have conducted a major convention in Palakkad with the expelled party leader and one of the main intellectuals of the CPI-M, Berlin Kunhanandan Nair inaugurated the meet. This was attended by noted opposition voices of the CPI-M including writer and orator Appukuttan Vallikunnu, MR Murali who challenged the CPI-M leadership for coming out of the party while serving as the Shoranur Municipal vice chairman along with nine corporation councillors, Dhyanasudhan, Dr Azad, Kunuhikannan and several other left intellectuals. There is a general feeling that quite different from the expulsion of MV Raghavan and KR Gowri from the party some years ago there is a major possibility of this move of the rebels getting acceptance as the intelligentsia quotient in the rebel group is high.
Also the corruption in the left government with the day to day interventions of the sons and other close relatives of ministers in several issues is creating problem to the CPI-M leadership. The image of the CPI-M as a political party is in its lowest ebb in the state and the party is trying to make up these deficiencies with the new love found for the Islamic forces in the state.
CPI-M on killing spree in Kannur district
The CPI-M which is mired by problems of seat sharing with the CPI and the multi crore corruption charges against the party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has resorted to its old tactics of settling scores with the RSS in the red bastion of Kannur. The CPI-M which is involved in annihilating political opponents in the district has again sharpened its arsenals against the RSS thus continuing its record of killing its political opponents even when it is in power in the state.
The CPI-M cadres are free to operate in this politically volatile district with the police turning its back on them as direct instructions come to the district police superintendent from the office of the state Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who is the CPI-M leader and local MLA from Thalassery. It may be recalled that this leader while in opposition has on record addressed a violent CPI-M mob that if necessary the party would make country bombs in Thalassery police station office. The local people had lamented that the law and order situation in the district would be in shambles with this goonda leader becoming the state Home Minister.
The CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan also hails from the town and the Kannur lobby of the CPI-M which is annihilating its political opponents has even expelled the sitting MP of Kannur AP Abdullakutty on charges of having praised Narendra Modi'sdevelopment in a public function addressing Gulf Malayalees.
The sudden spate of killings started the other day after the CPI-M cadres has been continuously attacking the RSS workers and leaders and the residence of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha state vice president P Sathyaprakash was totally destroyed by the CPI-M cadres.
A local BMS worker Vinayan was killed by the CPI-M cadres in broadday light and the police were not present even to nab the culprits.
With the RSS cadres defending the attacks a CPI-M worker also lost his life and there are possibilities of the violence reaching unexpected heights. The CPI-M local leaders are fanning the violence with vitriolic speeches. The CPI-M area secretary P Hareendran is considered to be the key local operative in Panoor area which is considered as the epicenter of political killings in Kannur district. The CPI-M also unleashed violence in Kannur town with two RSS workers, Sasankan and Sathyesh, getting hurt in CPI-M attacks. Both were admitted to Pariyaram Medical College with critical wounds.
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