Car of CPM whistleblower V Kunhikrishnan’s backroom strategist torched, house vandalised in Payyannur

Kannur: Hours after polling closed, violence resurfaced in Payyannur, the CPM’s stronghold, with supporters of CPM whistleblower-turned-UDF-backed candidate V Kunhikrishnan coming under attack.

The house of T Purushothaman, a Marxist intellectual, at Mahadeva Gramam in Payyannur, was vandalised in the early hours of Friday. Window panes were smashed, and his Hyundai i20 car, parked in the porch, was set on fire after its rear windshield was shattered. The blaze, which caught the rear right tyre and bumper, was doused by the family before it could spread.

“The attack began with stones being hurled past midnight. They entered the compound, broke the glass and set the car on fire. When we stepped out, we saw three people running away,” Purushothaman said. “If we had delayed by even five minutes, the car would have been gutted, and the fire could have spread to the house. It was a threat to our lives.”

Purushothaman, a CPM branch committee member, denied campaigning for Kunhikrishnan but acknowledged attending the whistleblower’s book release on February 4. “There could be no other reason. This was deliberate and pre-planned,” he said. Police have registered an FIR, but no arrests have been reported.

The arson attack on a Kunhikrishnan supporter is not an isolated incident. On January 26, the motorcycle of Prasannan, Kunhikrishnan’s neighbour and a core supporter, was wheeled into a nearby farmland and set on fire. Earlier that day, Prasannan led an impromptu march in Vellur backing Kunhikrishnan after the CPM expelled him for publicly accusing MLA T I Madhusoodanan of misappropriating funds raised for the family of slain party worker C V Dhanraj, for a party office, and for his own election expenses.

After two and a half months, the police have yet to arrest those responsible for the arson attack.

In the aftermath, a collective named Jagratha Payyannur emerged to crowdfund a new motorcycle for Prasannan. The same group went on to publish Kunhikrishnan’s tell-all book, 'Nethruthwathe Anikal Thiruthanam’ (‘The Rank Should Correct the Leadership’).

During the campaign, there were no direct attacks on Kunhikrishnan’s supporters, but he had alleged sustained pressure from the party on landowners to deny him space to run his election office.

Tensions have also played out online and in neighbourhoods. P V Subhash, a former CPM councillor (2020-2025) from Annoor Kizhakkekovval division, faced a barrage of threats on social media after allegedly voting for Kunhikrishnan. “He was called a class traitor and warned he wouldn’t be spared,” said Hareesh Annoor, a Congress mandalam president.

In the same area, the compound wall of a Congress supporter, Rekha, was demolished after it was used for graffiti backing Kunhikrishnan, Hareesh said. The incidents point to the lack of political freedom in places such as Payyannur.

Within CPM circles, Purushothaman is known as an independent-minded intellectual with a complicated past. He and Payyannur MLA T I Madhusoodanan were once contemporaries, with many recalling Purushothaman as the sharper mind. Purushothaman had also worked with Kunhikrishnan in 1985, when he was the DYFI block secretary.

But his trajectory changed when he was handed over to the police, allegedly by the party, in a murder case; he was convicted and spent nearly a decade in prison. By the time he returned, Madhusoodanan had risen in the party. Purushothaman, they accused, nursed a grievance, but found himself edged out. He was later expelled by the party. He briefly moved across Left parties before being accommodated again in the CPM's Payyannur town branch.

When Kunhikrishnan revolted against Madhusoodanan, Purushothaman, who made his money in the prawns business after his release from prison, gravitated towards him.

Though he denies any formal role, the CPM views him as a backroom strategist in Kunhikrishnan’s election campaign, said party sources.

If that is so, the attack on his house lays bare the lack of political freedom in Payyannur and Kannur, where even an intellectual cannot openly support a candidate of his choice, and even discreet support invites reprisal. "What we are seeing now is the party turning into a mafia," Purushothaman said after his house was attacked.

"A feature of fascism is to subjugate people by scaring them. If they are not able to subjugate, destroy them. That is the feature of fascism. That is what we are seeing now, to destroy those who have a different view."