Kannur: Another deeper internal rift in the Kannur unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM] has spilled into the open after CPM Kannur Secretariat member T K Govindan publicly accused the party leadership of nepotism and manipulating its internal processes to field state secretary M V Govindan's wife P K Shyamala, in the Taliparamba assembly constituency.

On Monday, Govindan announced his exit from the party and said he would contest the election in Taliparamba, challenging Shyamala's candidature.

The development comes close on the heels of a similar revolt in Payyannur, where former district committee member V Kunhikrishnan has announced his decision to contest against the party candidate and MLA T I Madhusoodanan following the martyr's fund misappropriation row.

The rebellions of V Kunhikrishnan and T K Govindan have found traction at the grassroots and exposed an unusual level of dissent within the CPM in Kannur.

Revolt from the party's highest district body
In a two-hour press conference in Kannur, T K Govindan alleged a "conspiracy in the candidate selection process" that ensured Shyamala's candidature despite widespread and vehement opposition across party committees.

According to him, the controversy began when the district secretariat met to discuss candidate selection.

He said CPM district secretary K K Ragesh informed members that a woman candidate should be fielded in the district, and then said the constituency should be Taliparamba, and went on to propose Shyamala's name. During the same meeting, Ragesh also proposed T I Madhusoodanan as the candidate in Payyannur. "K K Ragesh won't take any decision without taking the opinion of Pinarayi Vijayan," Govindan said.

"Both proposals faced stiff opposition in the district secretariat," he said. Except for three members, the others in the Secretariat opposed Shyamala's candidature, he said.

Govindan said that though the party had explained away the allegations against Madhusoodanan, it had failed to convince party members and leaders in Payyannur. "What we realised was that people in Payyannur trusted what Kunhikrishnan said rather than the account presented by the party," he said.

'Dissent ignored'
Govindan said similar resistance emerged against Shyamala's candidature in Taliparamba. Senior leader P Jayarajan was one of the leading dissenting voices. Several members suggested the name of CPM district committee member N Sukanya as a possible candidate instead of Shyamala. Sukanya is the wife of former Taliparamba MLA James Mathew.

"I forcefully expressed my dissent and asked that my views be recorded separately," he said. According to him, senior leaders including E P Jayarajan, M V Jayarajan and P K Sreemathi were present during the meeting.

M V Jayarajan then assured members that the dissenting opinions would be forwarded to the state secretariat for a final decision. "But only one name was sent to the state secretariat. It was Shyamala's. Our dissent was ignored," he said, alleging conspiracy.

Once the state secretariat received only one recommendation, the candidature was approved and sent back to the district committee for ratification. Pandemonium broke out in the district committee.

Govindan said the opposition did not stop there. When the name was subsequently sent to the party's Taliparamba Assembly Constituency Committee, nearly all members objected to Shyamala's candidature.

"Our party had never seen such opposition in an internal meeting," he said. "And this happened when M V Govindan was present. He had no reason to be there, but he attended the meeting. When I offered to intervene to calm the members, he said, 'Let them speak freely'."

Despite the criticism, party secretary M V Govindan went ahead and announced Shyamala as the candidate. "If the party had any meaningful intra-party democracy, the candidate's name would not have made it past the first district secretariat meeting."

Govindan, who had been a district committee member for 25 years, slammed the party's state chief for bypassing the party's two-term rule by nominating his wife from his constituency.

Electoral vulnerability in Taliparamba
The rebellion comes at a time when the CPM's electoral dominance in Taliparamba appears to be weakening. In the 2021 assembly election, M V Govindan won the constituency with a margin of 22,689 votes, securing 52.14 per cent of the vote share.

However, in the recently concluded local body elections, the gap between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the assembly segment shrank sharply to 7,611 votes. The LDF's vote share slipped to 47 per cent, while the UDF increased its share to 43 per cent.

Local cadres fear that the ongoing rebellion could further erode the party's support base.

Anthoor controversy resurfaces
Shyamala's candidature has also revived memories of the controversial suicide of NRI businessman Sajan Parayil in 2019.

Parayil died after allegedly being denied a building number for an auditorium by the Anthoor municipality, then headed by Shyamala. Anthoor, the hometown of Shyamala and M V Govindan, is infamous for CPM candidates winning unopposed. Rival candidates and their proposers are often threatened to withdraw the nomination papers. Yet, Sajan Parayil's death triggered widespread protests in the area. “There was widespread opinion among the people of Anthoor that the chairperson was responsible,” he said.

Govindan said anger among residents was so intense that party leaders had to convene a public meeting and promise action against those responsible for his death to calm the situation.

But the party later gave her a clean chit. The police, too, concluded that Shyamala had no role in the suicide. "The police gave a clean chit because they did not find several documents related to Sajan. The documents went missing. It was done to protect Shyamala," he alleged. Many comrades and municipal officials, he said, remembered Shyamala telling Sajan Parayil that she would not give his auditorium building number "as long as she was in the chairperson's seat".

Govindan also drew a comparison with the recent case involving P P Divya, who stepped down as district panchayat president after being booked for abetting the suicide of ADM Naveen Babu.

"You can see the double standards," Govindan said. The CPM is in trouble in Divya's case after a sessions court on Monday asked the police to conduct further investigation into Naveen Babu's death and submit the report by May 30.

Allegations on MLA fund monitoring
Govindan also accused M V Govindan of dismantling internal party mechanisms that monitored the use of MLA development funds in the constituency.

Traditionally, he said, the party maintained an assembly committee to discuss development priorities and audit the utilisation of MLA funds. "That system became redundant after he became party secretary," T K Govindan alleged.

'Nepotism will destroy the party'
Explaining his decision to leave the CPM after more than six decades of association, Govindan said the issue was not merely about one candidate. If the CPM's candidate list is closely examined, there are many Shyamalas, he said. "A communist party must have political morality and a sense of justice. If one person decides that after him his wife should hold the seat, that will destroy the party. One of the reasons why I quit the party is because a leader like Pinarayi Vijayan is allowing such things," he said.

He was also critical of the way the party treated senior leader and Mattannur MLA K K Shailaja, who is fielded by Peravoor, held by the Congress state president Sunny Joseph for three consecutive terms. "If Shailaja wanted to be an MLA again, she should have been fielded in Mattannur itself. When I asked why she was being shunted to Peravoor, the leadership said it was to wrest the seat back from the Congress. Will she be able to do it in her 70s? She is my contemporary. But Shylaja was packed off and his wife was fielded in Taliparamba."

Govindan said he would contest the election as an independent candidate. He added that he would accept support from other political groups such as the Congress but would not seek backing from the BJP.

With rebellions now brewing simultaneously in Payyannur and Taliparamba, the CPM leadership faces an unexpected political challenge in Kannur. For the first time in years, the party’s candidate selection process in its strongest district has become the subject of public scrutiny, and internal dissent.