Kasaragod: Senior Congress leader and ace criminal lawyer CK Sreedharan (77), who had put the CPM in the dock one too many times, is joining the Marxist party on Saturday.
Sreedharan was the former state vice-president of the Congress and the Kasaragod district president of the party from December 2012 to December 2016.
He was scripting his exit from the Congress he joined in 1977 after the present party president K Sudhakaran dropped him from the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC). His intent became clear when Chief Miniser Pinarayi Vijayan flew in from Thiruvananthapuram only to release his autobiography in Kanhangad on October 19. The chief minister did not have any other programme scheduled in Kannur or Kasaragod that day.
At the function, Pinarayi Vijayan said Sreedharan's voice had boomed in all the courts and political arena of the state. But he should introspect whether he had gotten the recognition he deserved in the Congress party, said the chief minister.
Though Sreedharan said the release of his autobiography was a non-political event, the chief minister's loaded statement dropped enough hints on his future course of action.
According to the sources, Sreedharan held talks with Pinarayi after the funeral of CPM's former state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan at Thalassery in the first week of October. Kodiyeri's protégé and Speaker AN Shamseer was also part of the meeting, they said.
Sreedharan on Tuesday told reporters in Kanhangad that he was unhappy with the political stance of the Congress leadership. He said he would elaborate on his grudge at a press conference on Thursday.
CPM State Secretary MV Govindan would welcome him into the party on Saturday.
The CPM has timed the event to take the sting out of the merger of the Congress rebels in East Eleri panchayats with the Congress on Sunday.
The rebel grouping named Democratic Development Front (DDF) had defeated the Congress in two local body elections in the party's bastion of East Eleri.
The DDF, an ally of the LDF, is returning to the Congress after nearly seven years. Around 5,000 workers and seven panchayat members, led by DDF leader James Panthamakkal, are returning to the Congress on Sunday, said a Congress leader. "Sreedharan was the district president of the Congress when Panthamakkal was ousted from the party for raising allegations of corruption in a cooperative society. Now, Panthamakkal is returning to the Congress with 5,000 people. And Sreedharan is leaving the party alone," the leader said.
Though a lone man, Sreedharan will be an asset to the CPM because of his political acumen.
Sreedharan, as a special public prosecutor, had embarrassed the CPM by securing the conviction of 12 CPM workers in the killing of TP Chandrasekharan (52) at Onchiyam near Vadakara in Kozhikode. He has appealed against the acquittal of 24 CPM workers and leaders in the same case but backed off later from the case citing health reasons.
Recently, he had given his consent to be the special public prosecutor in the murder case of Congress's grassroots leader and primary school teacher Rameshan TP (52) of Kayyur village. Rameshan was beaten to death allegedly by his neighbours in March 2018. The accused are CPM supporters.
"Initially, the LDF government rejected the proposal to appoint Sreedharan as special public prosecutor. But the family submitted the request again after Sreedharan gave his consent," said Congress leader and senior advocate MC Jose.
The family members said all the accused were out on bail and there was no progress in the case. They were pinning their hope on Sreedharan.
In 1987, he successfully defended 53 Congress workers accused of killing five CPM activists on Assembly election polling day. "Not one kid was convicted in the case," Sreedharan proudly told Onmanorama while discussing his autobiography in October.
The Cheemeni massacre case had touched a raw nerve among CPM workers who worked harder to defeat Sreedharan in the Trikaripur assembly seat in 1991.
CPM district secretary MV Balakrishnan said the party welcomed Sreedharan into the party. "The BJP is the main adversary in contemporary politics. With its communal narrow-minded politics, the BJP is the real threat to Indian polity. So it is important to bring together those opposing the BJP," he said.
Also, the CPM is the party that can be depended on by people such as Sreedharan, who are upset with the present plight of the Congress, Balakrishnan said. "We welcome him."
