New Kerala LDF convenor's loose comments stirs up state politics

Thiruvananthapuram, April 22 There is never a dull moment when veteran CPI-M leader E.P. Jayarajan meets the media and after his taking over as the new Left Democratic Front convenor a few days back, his statements has left his party colleagues and other allies fuming and earned him some tough words from top leaders.

Soon after his elevation, Jayarajan, who is a Central Committee member, said he expects the Indian Union Muslim League to cross over to the LDF, evoking a flurry of strong reactions, including from the CPI - the second-biggest constituent of the LDF, which said no such thing is on the agenda.

Outgoing convenor A. Vijayaraghavan and a few other top CPI-M leaders also made statements, distancing themselves from Jayarajan's comments.

The IUML is the second-biggest party in the Congress-led United Democratic Front, and after failing to get to power in the April 2021 Assembly polls, things have gone a bit haywire in it, as a section in the party is jittery that with the Congress in the state in disarray, the future look bleak.

But quick to react was senior IUML legislator and former minister M.K. Muneer, who said they are not "beggars" to be going around seeking admission to anywhere.

What hurt the CPI-M most was that it was not long ago that the CPI-M's state Secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan stonewalled the IUML and almost told them that they are not needed.

And with this attracting lot of unnecessary traction in the media, the CPI-M's state secretariat, at its meeting on Friday, took up the issue with Jayarajan and is understood to have given him a dressing down and was asked him to see that he keeps control over his utterances.

At the end, Jayarajan, according to sources in the know of things, had to tell the meeting he did not do give an invite to the IUML.

Incidentally, he is more known for his major goof-up of 2016, when Jayarajan, the then Sports Minister, when asked by a TV channel for his reaction to the death of boxing legend Mohammed Ali, started by saying that "he just heard the news that Muhammad Ali passed away in America" but went on to say that "Ali was an eminent sports personality of Kerala and is one who has won a gold medal thereby raising Kerala's position in the world".

The TV news anchor then acted swiftly to save the minister further embarrassment but cutting the audio but for quite some time, he was the darling of the trolls.