The CPM had sensed a shift in allegiance of former Minister G Sudhakaran and had tried to stop him, CPM state Secretary M V Govindan has said. In an interview published on Suprabhaatham, the official mouthpiece of the Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama (EK faction), Govindan said that he had reached out to him when he realised that Sudhakaran was vacillating in his association with the party. 

G Sudhakaran, who quit the CPM recently, is contesting in Ambalapuzha with the support of the Congress against CPM candidate H Salam, who is currently the MLA. "He was an important leader of the CPM. When we understood that there was a change in his allegiance, I contacted him and told him that whatever he was upto was not right. I talked to him in person six months ago. CPM General Secretary M A Baby also spoke to him many times. His only issue was parliamentary greed," Govindan said in the interview. 

Govindan's words do not actually echo what Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said on Sudhakaran's exit from the party. In an interview with the Manorama News, Pinarayi was repeatedly quizzed on whether the party intelligence had failed to anticipate such a move from Sudhakaran. Pinarayi, in his response, stated that he had come across some rumors but didn't expect Sudhakaran to act like what he did. 

"What he did was betrayal. He ruined the confidence reposed in him. It was mean, there is no other way to put it," Pinarayi said in the interview. According to Pinarayi, the party trusted its comrades. "It was all hearsay, but we didn't believe it until it happened. When we actually realised that this was going to happen, I tried contacting him but he didn't respond. Now we realise, this has been in the making for quite some time," he said. 

In a lengthy press conference announcing his candidature in the assembly polls, Sudhakaran had said that nobody from the party tried to contact him to solve the differences and those who visited him didn't mention anything. "MA Baby paid me a personal visit. Central committee member C S Sujatha and her husband Harishankar had also met me. But they are my relatives. There is nothing more to it," he said in the press conference.