Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 10 (IANS) The state committee meeting of the CPI-M held here on Friday witnessed scenes that are normally not seen at a party meeting when two veterans, both hailing from Kannur and both having the same surname, took on each other following which a committee was formed to probe the allegations levelled against both the sides.
The trouble began in December last year when at a state committee meeting, P. Jayarajan, who is the chairperson of the state-run Khadi Board, alleged that E.P. Jayarajan, the present Left Democratic Front convenor and former state Industries Minister, and his family had “amassed huge wealth”.
Two days later, the close aides of E.P. Jayarajan accused P. Jayarajan of having links with a gold smuggling gang, accusing him of failing to submit proper account statements of election expenses when the latter was the CPI(M) candidate during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Vadakara constituency.
And when this became public, it was a free for all, especially as more information came out which pointed out that E.P. Jayarajan’s son and wife are company directors, who own a Rs 30 crore Ayurveda resort in Kannur that was opened in 2019, something which P. Jayarajan had hinted at.
With the media having a field day, the party went into a huddle and decided to see that there is no more washing dirty linen in public and things went quiet in the party while the politburo also played it down and feigned ignorance about the matter.
But on Friday, according to those in the know of things, this issue re-surfaced when E.P. Jayarajan said that there has been a conspiracy to tarnish him. Soon P. Jayarajan also joined the issue and spoke about how he was being hounded.
At the end the state committee meeting, it was decided that a committee will be formed to look into the allegations levelled by both the sides.
The committee members are expected to be announced soon.
At the peak of the allegations that surfaced against E.P. Jayarajan, BJP leaders had demanded a probe by a central agency, while the Congress had sought a judicial probe.
–IANS
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