Kerala’s CPI legislator C.C. Mukundan accuses party leadership of trading seats for election funding

Echoes of the “payment seat” controversy that dogged the Communist Party of India (CPI) in the 2014 Lok Sabha election in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, seemed to surface again in the party in Thrissur on Monday.

CPI leader C.C. Mukundan, MLA, accused the party’s State leadership of preferring his party compatriot, Geetha Gopi, to him for the Nattika Assembly seat, which he currently represents, because “she could raise funds to fill the CPI’s election war chest.”

Mr. Mukundan, who won the constituency in 2021 with a margin of 28,000 votes, told reporters in Thrissur that he would contest again, “with or without” the CPI’s imprimatur. “I am not a fundraiser. I will not wait for the leadership to remove me. Before that, I will take the necessary step,” he said. 

Geetha Gopi refutes charges

Mr. Mukundan’s “mutiny” has come close on the heels of the CPI State council finalising the list of 25 candidates on Sunday. (When contacted on Sunday, CPI State secretary Binoy Viswam had told The Hindu to “wait for a formal announcement”.)

Nevertheless, a CPI insider said the State council had reportedly approved the party secretariat’s proposal to field seven sitting legislators, including four Cabinet Ministers. He said Mr. Mukundan, a first-term MLA, appeared not to have made it to the list. 

Hasn’t shut door on Mukundan: Binoy Viswam

Mr. Viswam told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that the CPI “does not sell seats for money”. He rejected attempts by the Opposition to resurrect the 2014 “payment seat” controversy. “The CPI accepts contributions, not illicit money, and it does not hoard funds from dubious sources for fighting the elections,” he said. 

Mr. Viswam called Mr. Mukundan’s remarks a “transient emotional outburst” that would soon pass. “The CPI has not shut the door on Mukundan. The party is willing to lend an ear to Mr. Mukundan’s grievances”, he said. 

Asked about Congress leaders reaching out to Mr. Mukundan, Mr. Viswam responded: “A communist can’t switch loyalties like shirts.” 

Mr. Viswam refused to draw a parallel between Mr. Mukundan’s allegation and the politically tempestuous controversy that the CPI had “sold” the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat to Bennet Abraham for ₹1 crore in 2014. 

(A consequent intra-party inquiry led to the demotion of senior leaders, including former Minister C. Divakaran. The UDF had accused the LDF of election corruption and moved the Kerala Lok Ayuktha for an investigation.)