CPM removes Udma area secretary over woman's semi-naked photo posted as WhatsApp status

Kasaragod: The CPM has removed Madhu Muthiyakkal as its Udma area committee secretary, two weeks after a private photograph of a female colleague appeared on his WhatsApp status. Muthiyakkal had said the photograph was posted inadvertently.

P V Rajendran, former Udma panchayat president, was elected the new area secretary. The decision was taken at an area committee meeting held at the party office in Chattanchal on Wednesday evening.

The photograph appeared on Muthiyakkal's WhatsApp status on the eve of the CPM's two-day expanded Kasaragod district committee meeting held on October 15 and 16. Muthiyakkal attended the meeting as the Udma area secretary.

The image fuelled speculation that he may have intended to send the marked photograph back to her but accidentally posted it as his status. 

Party workers who saw the status took screenshots and circulated them in party groups. The incident triggered demands within the party for action against him. There were also reports of complaints being submitted to the district leadership seeking his removal from the post and expulsion from the party.

Back then, CPM District Secretary M Rajagopalan had denied receiving any complaints against Muthiyakkal, though he admitted to seeing a new report on the scandal.

The controversy had put Muthiyakkal under scrutiny at a time when he was being groomed as a possible LDF candidate in the Udma Assembly constituency. The party has not publicly disclosed the reasons for the organisational action against Muthiyakkal.