Kerala CPM strongman Jayarajan removed as LDF convenor over meeting with Javadekar

CPM‘s Kerala leadership on Saturday removed senior leader EP Jayarajan from the important post of the convenor of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), in the wake of an embarrassing expose that he had held an unpublicised meeting with the BJP in-charge of the state, Prakash Javadekar, ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

However, Kerala’s CPI-M leadership decided that its actor-MLA M Mukesh, who is accused of sexual assault, need not quit the assembly.

State party secretary MV Govindan argued that so many MLAs and MPs facing allegations of misbehavior with women had not resigned. This decision amounted to rejecting CPI-M politburo member Brinda Karat’s demand for Mukesh’s resignation as an MLA. Mukesh, however, will be eased out of the less-important state cinema policy-making body.

The decision to take disciplinary action against Jayarajan was made by the CPI-M state secretariat at a meeting on Friday, and the party state committee removed him from the LDF convenor position on Saturday. A CPI-M central committee member, Jayarajan is considered among the most important state party leaders and has been a close ally of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Another senior leader, TP Ramakrishnan, will be the next LDF convenor.

The expose of the Jayarajan-Javadekar meeting, reportedly arranged by a corporate middleman at the Thiruvananthapuram house of the CPI-M leader’s son, had embarrassed the CPI-M and LDF during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year as it triggered Congress charges of a CPI-M-BJP nexus. Making things worse, Jayarajan chose to publicly admit his meeting with Javadekar right on the day when Kerala was voting in LS poll, even though he termed it as an unscheduled courtesy visit by the BJP leader. All these happened when there were persistent talks in political circles that Jayarajan’s relation with the CPI-M leadership had turned complicated over a number of reasons, including the fact he was overlooked for the top post of the Kerala CPI-M state secretary.

While Jayarajan chose to give a miss to the party state committee meeting which acted against him, what would be his next political move and destination are being closely monitored by political circles. The Congress leadership in Kerala said the action against Jayarajan only confirmed the party’s charge of a nexus between many CPIM and BJP leaders.