CPI(M) leader’s attack on Binoy Viswam sparks sharp rebuttal from CPI

CPI(M) leader and former MP S. Ajaya Kumar has launched a sharp attack on the CPI, accusing its State secretary Binoy Viswam of behaving like a ‘fourth-rate politician.’

Mr. Ajaya Kumar said CPI members had a mentality like a lizard clinging to a roof, overestimating their own power while being inherently fragile. He made the remarks while addressing a public meeting at Mannoor, near here, on Tuesday, where longstanding tensions between the CPI(M) and CPI have persisted.

He accused Mr. Viswam of behaving like a petty politician and alleged that the CPI had become a party that claims credit whenever it secures a victory.

He also asserted that the CPI commands only about 5% of the vote share in Kerala and is not a political force capable of winning independently in any constituency, let alone an Assembly segment or a panchayat.

In a response to the criticism, CPI Palakkad district secretary Sumalatha Mohandas said that Mr. Ajaya Kumar was mentally imbalanced. She urged the CPI(M) district leadership to reprimand and restrain him.

Ms. Mohandas said Mr. Viswam is nationally well known as a communist party leader. The CPI, she said, has a 100-year legacy, a tradition that the CPI(M) cannot claim. She said that insulting the CPI State secretary over a local issue reflected a lack of political maturity on the part of the CPI(M) leader and warned that such remarks would only serve to weaken the Left Democratic Front (LDF).

Ms. Mohandas also pointed out that Mr. Ajaya Kumar had been elected as an MP twice with the support of CPI votes.