Kannur: A banner that appeared overnight at Kara in Payyannur has transformed a simmering rebellion into an open challenge for embattled Payyannur MLA TI Madhusoodanan, just as he prepares to launch his constituency-wide campaign.

The message was blunt: "No entry for thieves and slaves." Madhusoodanan's Vikasana Munetta Jatha is set to traverse the Payyannur Assembly segment from February 13 to 16. "We don't know exactly when he will reach Kara," said a rebel leader, "but the message is on the wall."

Kara, long regarded as one of the CPM's bastions within Payyannur municipality, has witnessed inner-party rebellion since 2022. While rebels in the area had earlier expressed guarded support for whistleblower V Kunhikrishnan through sympathetic messaging, this is the first time they have openly trained their sights on Madhusoodanan himself- an influential leader and a member of the CPM's Kannur district secretariat, the party's highest decision-making body in the district.

Kunhikrishnan, a former CPM Kannur district committee member, has unsettled the party with allegations of financial misappropriation detailed in his book and reiterated in public speeches. His accusations directly target Madhusoodanan, alleging misappropriation of funds raised for the family of slain CPM worker CV Dhanraj, contributions collected for the Payyannur area committee office, and funds mobilised during the 2021 assembly election campaign. The launch of his book, 'The Rank Should Correct the Leadership', on February 4, saw a huge crowd at Payyannur's Gandhi Park and 2,500 copies sold out in two hours of the event. The response to the book launch offered a measure of the disquiet within the party's grassroots.

Yet, Kara's rebels publicly insisted that their own local grievances were separate from Kunhikrishnan's revolt, even as they agreed with several of his allegations. Sunday's banner marks a departure from that line. It signals a willingness to confront Madhusoodanan head-on and hints at a tacit understanding with Kunhikrishnan's supporters, who are spread across the constituency but are believed to be concentrated in his native village of Vellur.

The banner's photograph was soon posted on a Facebook page called 'Kaarayile Sakhakkal' (Comrades of Kara), which has around 8,000 followers. The cover photo of the page has Dhanraj with the message: 'Expect no mercy when our turn comes'.

The comments beneath the banner's photo ('No entry for thieves and slaves') offered a snapshot of grassroots sentiment. When one user asked whether the banner was telling Kunhikrishnan to keep out of Kara as he was fabricating allegations, another user, 'Cheguvera Che', replied: "Those who can see will see; those who cannot will go round in circles." He added that people knew very well who Comrade Kunhikrishnan was and that he needed no certification.

Another user, Prashath Jeevanam, was blunter, writing that everyone knew exactly whom the banner was meant for.

Not all responses were sympathetic. Reshma Vijayan from Koothuparamba described Kunhikrishnan as a traitor, alleging that he amassed assets worth over ₹7 crore while working in cooperative institutions and within the party. According to her, the party had been his "milch cow", and now, with nothing left to gain, he had turned against it. A reply to her comment was swift: "Slave spotted."

On January 25, in the early phase of Kunhikrishnan's open rebellion, another banner appeared in the area, carrying photographs of Kunhikrishnan alongside former chief minister VS Achuthanandan, urging him to march ahead and declaring that he was on the right path.

The importance of Kara
In the December municipal elections, ousted DYFI leader C Vaishak contested as an independent in the Kara division and won decisively, securing 63 per cent of the vote. The LDF's official candidate, P Jayan of Congress (Secular), finished third with just 13 per cent, while the IUML came second, trailing Vaishak by 458 votes.

The CPM attempted to downplay the defeat, calling it a rebellion confined to a single division and pointing out that the LDF won 36 of the 41 divisions in Payyannur municipality, up from 34 in 2020.

But the rebels are planning to hurt the party.

Vaishak was the CPM branch secretary of the Kara North committee and DYFI's Payyannur regional vice-president. He said he was expelled after questioning a group of DYFI leaders who allegedly arrived with swords to attack fellow DYFI workers from Kara over a minor dispute during a temple festival. Despite repeatedly urging the party to act, Vaishak claimed the leadership concluded the attackers carried sticks, not swords. He was later removed from the party's primary membership. With no alternative, he contested as a rebel, and voters backed him overwhelmingly, a verdict widely seen locally as an endorsement of his stand with Kara's youth.

Kunhikrishnan's revolt from Vellur has meanwhile gained traction beyond his village, reflected in the large turnout at his book launch and the rush to buy copies. His speech at the February 4 book release was shared by 'Kaarayile Sakhakkal' with a caption: "People will correct (the party)."

With Kara now openly joining issue with Madhusoodanan, the challenge has shifted from isolated dissent to something closer to consolidation.

Madhusoodanan had won his maiden assembly election in 2021 by a massive margin of 49,780 votes, pushing the CPM's vote share in Payyannur by 4.5 points to 62.5 per cent. But recent numbers tell a different story. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the CPM's vote share in the Payyannur assembly segment dropped to around 48 per cent. The constituency also recorded 1,351 NOTA votes (nearly 1 per cent). The BJP emerged as the principal beneficiary of the erosion, nearly doubling its vote share to 12 per cent, polling 18,466 votes compared with 9,268 in 2019.

Though Madhusoodanan continues to wield more influence in the assembly segment than MV Balakrishnan, the former Kasaragod CPM district secretary who contested the Lok Sabha election, the slippage is unmistakable. Defeating the CPM in Payyannur Assembly segment- represented exclusively by the party since the constituency's formation in 1967 and once held by leaders such as MV Raghavan and Pinarayi Vijayan- remains a formidable task. But the ground beneath it is shifting.

Among Kara's rebels, Madhusoodanan is derisively referred to as the "Innova MLA", a jibe at his perceived reluctance to venture beyond the reach of his official vehicle. One supporter conceded the criticism, saying the MLA had been advised to mingle more with people and that the forthcoming yatra would reflect greater public engagement. He added, however, that Madhusoodanan had restricted his movements due to perceived threats from BJP-RSS workers. The Kara rebels laughed off the explanation.

As Madhusoodanan's campaign caravan prepares to roll out across Payyannur, the message from the rebels is: expect speed bumps.