Embarrassment mounts for CPM in rebel's murder case

Thiruvananthapuram: The arrests of suspects in the murder of rebel Communist leader TP Chandrasekharan, who left the Communist Party of India Marxist to float the Revolutionary Marxist Party, is causing severe embarrassment for the Kerala CPM.

It is compounded by a public spat of the party's two top state leaders, and a volley of criticism directed at CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

Significantly, amidst the storm, the central leadership of the party seems helpless to act one way or the other.

The five persons arrested in the case, including CPM local committee member P Ravindran, were on Wednesday brought before a court in Kunnamangalam under tight security.

A large number of people had thronged the court premises to catch a glimpse of the accused. The court remanded Ravindran, and another accused, M Pradeep, to police custody for a fortnight.

The three other accused, Kunnummal Dipu, K Ramish and A Rajith, were remanded for four days each in police custody.

The arrests and remand have brought a political setback, too, to the CPM ahead of the forthcoming assembly by-election in Neyyattinkara.

‘Quotation' killing

Meanwhile, unknown persons pelted stones at the residences of two CPM local committee members, P. Ravindran and KC Ramachandran. Ramachandran had been injured in a two-wheeler accident, and police had taken him into custody from a hospital at Vadakara.

Police are currently known to be putting together the pieces in the murder case, and the general perception is that the murder had been carried out by paying money for the crime to a gang, referred to in local parlance as "quotation" killing.

Serious problems came to the fore in the CPM this week, following the murder of the rebel leader. CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had termed the deceased rebel leader Chandrasekharan a "turncoat", and his party colleague VS Achuthanandan took strong exception to that comment.

The public spat between the two also led to a poster campaign in different parts of the state, praising or criticising Pinarayi Vijayan and VS Achuthanandan, depending on whose supporters put up the posters.

In the latest incidents, posters praising Achuthanandan have been put up in Badiyadukka and Neeleswaram.

In some of the posters, the slogans praise both Achuthanandan and the deceased rebel leader TP Chandrasekharan.

These have fuelled discussions and speculation that a large number of disgruntled cadres in the CPM are in favour of Achuthanandan leaving the party and floating a new outfit to challenge the state unit of the CPM, led by Pinarayi Vijayan.