CPI(M) turns the page on party veteran G. Sudhakaran

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State Secretariat on Friday signalled that it had turned the page on party veteran G. Sudhakaran. Mr. Sudhakaran’s press conference on Thursday announcing his candidacy as an Independent from the Ambalapuzha constituency, a CPI(M) stronghold, appeared to be the last straw. 

The CPI(M) also broadcast a marked reluctance to get bogged down by Mr. Sudhakaran’s politically stormy act of “dissidence”, which the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had sought to weaponise against the Left Democratic Front (LDF). Both parties had accused the CPI(M) leadership of hounding Mr. Sudhakaran out of the party for the latter’s “probity” in politics. 

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan told a news conference that it was superfluous to discuss Mr. Sudhakaran, who had severed links with the party. “Mr. Sudhakaran is beyond the pale of the CPI(M)’s ambit. He is an independent person and reserves the democratic right to pursue any course of political or social action he chooses,” he said. 

Mr. Govindan said the CPI(M) would take up the gauntlet thrown down by Mr. Sudhakaran in Ambalappuzha. “No one could make a dent in the party’s stronghold. The seat has remained with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and will continue to do so. The vote is for the party, not personalities”, he said. Mr. Govindan rejected questions concerning Mr. Sudhakaran’s two-hour-long press conference “against” the CPI(M)’s leadership in Alappuzha district.

The veteran had accused the CPI(M) of passing him over for a legislative post, selectively citing the age limit while failing to apply it to other veterans. Mr. Sudhakaran noted that communists had a legacy of drawing on age and experience and stated that Stalin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh, among others, had served the party until they died. Mr. Sudhakaran had also accused the CPI(M) Alappuzha district leadership of denigrating him and his family, and besmirching the memory of his martyred brother. Mr. Sudhakaran said he would not ally himself with any Opposition party and would remain a communist till the end of his days.

At Punnapra-Vayalar memorial

On Friday, Mr. Sudhakaran paid homage at the final resting place of the martyrs of the Punnapra-Vayalar agrarian uprising at Valiya Chudukadu in Alappuzha, setting the tone for his foray into politics as an Independent. Mr. Govindan’s dismissal of Mr. Sudhakaran notwithstanding, the CPI(M) in Alappuzha said the party would call a public protest meeting to spotlight the veteran’s “betrayal of the working class”.

Meanwhile, posters denouncing Mr. Sudhakaran appeared in different localities in Alappuzha. The police have posted an armed picket in front of Mr. Sudhakaran’s residence.