CPI(M) leadership shell-shocked over Jayarajan Vs Jayarajan tiff, leaves it to state committee

Thiruvananthapuram: With the tiff between the top two CPI(M) leader’s from Kannur taking a turn for the worse, a shell-shocked national leadership of the party on Monday asked the state committee to look into it, and if the findings warrant an action then the central committee will decide.

The tussle between two heavyweights — E.P. Jayarajan, the present Left Democratic Front (LDF) convenor, and P. Jayarajan, one of the most popular leaders, have now turned ugly.

The controversy began last week when P. Jayarajan at the party meetings of the top brass alleged that E.P. Jayarajan and his family had “amassed huge wealth”. Two days after this, the close aides of E.P. Jayarajan accused P. Jayarajan of having links with a gold smuggling gang and having failed to submit proper account statements of election expenses, when the latter was the CPI(M) candidate during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Vadakara constituency.

E.P. Jayarajan’s son and wife are the company directors, which own a Rs 30 crore Ayurveda resort in Kannur, that was opened in 2019.

Sources in the know of things revealed that the Politburo meeting will not look into this issue, instead would be taken up at the Central Committee meeting to be held in Kolkata next month.

Meanwhile, three days after this major controversy surfaced, the Congress party – the principal opposition party in the state – broke its silence when son of K. Karunakaran and Lok Sabha member K.Muraleedharan said the need of the hour was a judicial probe as the allegation stated that E.P. Jayarajan has misused his position as a Minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government (2016-21) and has amassed wealth.

“It must be noted that this allegation has been raised by an equally tall leader of the CPI(M). So we are all waiting to hear what Vijayan has to say,” said Muraleedharan.

Veteran Congress legislator Ramesh Chennithala said the Vijayan’s office was itself drowned in corrupt practices which includes allegations of gold smuggling, and the then number 2 in his cabinet E.P. Jayarajan’s nefarious deals have now surfaced.

“What has come out is only the tip of the iceberg and we demand a complete probe by an independent agency,” said Chennithala.

Meanwhile the CEO of the now controversial ayurveda ‘resort’ Thomas Joseph told the media that the institution was not a resort instead it’s an ayurveda hospital.

“E.P.Jayarajan’s son is a director and his share in the capital is only Rs one million, while his ( E.P. Jayarajan) wife, who retired after three decades of working in a Cooperative bank, has invested a share of her retirement benefits. There is a doubt about the former MD (Ramesh Kumar) of the ‘hospital’ whose tenure got over is behind spreading the baseless things. If I have to speak about it, I need to get permission from the director board,” said Joseph.

Speculation has surfaced that E.P. Jayarajan might step down as the LDF convenor on health grounds and now all are waiting to hear what Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has to say on this.

–IANS