Raids on Pinarayi Vijayan: ED gives CPM rallying point to unite divided cadres

Kannur: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) raids linked to the CMRL pay-off case appear to have handed the CPM leadership an opportunity to rally a deeply divided organisation after its crushing defeat in the Assembly election.

The severe setbacks, including in traditional strongholds such as Kannur, where sections of CPM cadres had turned against the leadership, had seen lower-level committees openly demanding leadership changes and course correction after the defeat. Stumbling for answers, the leadership is now trying to bring together the party cadre by framing Wednesday's ED action as a joint political operation by the BJP-led Centre and the Congress-led UDF government in Kerala. 

The effect of that call for unity was visible outside CPM Politburo member and former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s house at Pandyala Mukku in Pinarayi, where CPM workers and supporters gathered in large numbers from Wednesday morning. Mid-level leaders addressed workers seated in circles outside the house as slogans were raised calling on cadres to “unite” and “make the party stronger”.

CPM leaders, including K K Shailaja and V K Sanoj, urged party workers to close ranks behind the leadership.

“The ED raid is politically motivated. Such raids cannot destroy the CPM. People will understand the collusion between the Congress and the BJP. Unite to make the CPM stronger,” Shailaja said in a Facebook post.

CPM leaders argue that the raids are part of a political conspiracy, as investigations in the past two years have found nothing against Vijayan or his daughter.

“The ED raids on the houses of CPM Politburo member and former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family came a day after Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan met Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” alleged V K Sanoj, the DYFI state secretary and Mattannur MLA.

Sanoj said the BJP had repeatedly used central agencies against the CPM while Vijayan was Chief Minister, but “could not move even an inch against the Communist Party”. “The organisational strength of a working-class party built by lakhs of people cannot be destroyed by waving ‘paper snakes’ like raids against its senior leaders,” he said.

On the other hand, in a sign of efforts to bridge internal differences within the party, Bineesh Kodiyeri also visited Vijayan's house in Thiruvananthapuram to express solidarity. After the election defeat, Bineesh had posted cryptic criticism of the leadership on Facebook, which many in the party interpreted as salvos against Pinarayi and CPM state secretary M V Govindan. “When there is a problem in the family, all should stand together. I have decided to stand together,” Bineesh said.

The CPM leadership is now hoping to politically leverage the ED raids to consolidate the organisation at a time when it was facing mounting internal criticism after the electoral rout.