Kasaragod: The Left Democratic Front (LDF) lost in its "fortress" of Kasaragod in the 2019 Lok Sabha election because of the double murder of Youth Congress activists at Kalliyot in Periya, Sabarimala protests, and the UDF's campaign that Rahul Gandhi would be the next Prime Minister, said CPM's candidate M V Balakrishnan.
He was the CPM's Kasaragod district secretary during the three events and was recused from the post when he was named as the LDF's candidate in February.
Balakrishnan's admission at Kasaragod Press Club on Thursday, March 28, could be the first time a senior functionary of the CPM publicly admitted that the murders of Youth Congress activists Kripesh (19) and P K Sarath Lal (24) allegedly by CPM leaders and workers contributed to the party's electoral defeat in 2019.
The two activists were hacked to death on February 17, 2019. Initially, the CPM distanced itself from the double murders but later extended legal support to the accused. The CPM-led LDF government in Kerala went up to the Supreme Court to oppose the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from taking up the case.
In December 2021, a year after the CBI took over the case, the central agency named 24 persons as accused, all of them linked to the CPM. The CBI's list of accused included former MLA and present CPM District Secretariat member K V Kunhiraman and Kanhangad Block Panchayat President K Manikandan, apart from the party's branch and local committee members.
As soon as the CBI named the CPM members and leaders as accused, M V Balakrishnan, as party's top leader in Kasaragod, visited their houses and expressed solidarity with them. The party publicly said the accused named by the CBI were innocent and would fight the legal battle for them.
In 2019, Congress leader Rajmohan Unnithan defeated CPM's state committee member K P Satheesh Chandran by 40,438 votes.
It was CPM's first defeat in the Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency in 35 years. "The constituency is a Left fortress. Its colour will not change," Balakrishnan told reporters in Kasaragod. "The last election was influenced by Rahul Gandhi contesting in Wayanad and the campaign that he would be the next Prime Minister; the Sabarimala protest and Kalliyot," he said. But people regretted and are pained by their decision, he said.
When asked about the alleged ostracising and harassment of an elderly woman and her family by CPM in Nileshwar, he said it was a local issue. "The local party will be able to resolve the issue. Now I am in the midst of an election fight," he said.
Balakrishnan said the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) -- which discriminates against Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh -- was the "main issue" in this election.
A reporter asked him to explain CPM's "change" in stance on courting Muslim votes. In October 2020, the CPM's then-State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan made a fear-mongering statement that the Congress had handed over the leadership of UDF to M M Hassan, P K Kunhalikutty and Jamaat-e-Islami Amir (chief) M I Abdul Aziz.
Balakrishnan replied: "It is a natural change. Why are you upset over it?"
