CPM veteran P Jayarajan calls for removal of flex boards with his photos amid leadership change calls

Kannur: Senior CPM leader from Kannur, P Jayarajan, whose name is increasingly being taken by sections of the party cadre as replacement for state secretary M V Govindan after the LDF’s rout in the Assembly elections, has publicly distanced himself from the campaign, asking supporters to remove banners and flex boards carrying his photographs and to stop social media campaigns projecting him as an alternative leader.

In a strongly worded Facebook post on Thursday, Jayarajan, a member of the CPM state committee and one of the party’s popular leaders in north Kerala, said he had learned that boards bearing his image had appeared in some places after the election results.

“The boards carrying my photograph should be removed,” he said.

His intervention comes at a time when anger within sections of the CPM cadre has spilt into the open after the party’s heavy defeat in Kerala, especially in its traditional strongholds in the north. In recent days, the social media pages of senior party leaders, including M V Govindan and Kannur district secretary K K Ragesh, have been flooded with thousands of comments from workers and sympathisers demanding leadership change, accountability and genuine inner-party democracy.

Among the names floated by cadres as possible alternatives were those of Jayarajan and M Swaraj, a member of the CPM state secretariat. 

But Jayarajan made it clear that public campaigns built around individual leaders had no place in the party’s organisational culture. Projecting leaders through flex boards and public campaigns was part of Congress culture, not of the communists, he said, adding that the CPM had always objectively examined both victories and defeats and taken corrective steps.

At such a time, some were taking positions that did not help the review and correction process, he said. Without naming anyone, Jayarajan cautioned cadres against publicly targeting leaders they believed were responsible for the defeat.

“Campaigns on social media that glorify me while insulting some members of the party leadership should also stop,” he said.