Vadakara: One of Kerala’s most infamous political murders has cast its shadow on a high-octane poll battle at the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, in the northern half of the state.
T.P. Chandrasekharan was a popular CPI(M) leader in the region before he broke away to form the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) in 2008. In 2009, Chandrasekharan’s splinter won the local body elections at Onchiyam, in nearby Kozhikode, causing a huge embarrassment to the Left.
Chandrasekharan was seen as a threat to his former party as he began gaining a lot of ground in Vadakara. But on 4 May 2012, when he was returning home on his bike, a group of assailants in a car hurled country-made bombs at him and hacked him to death.
The brutality of the murder shocked the state as the assailants hacked away at his face to ensure that no one would recognise him.
Now, nearly seven years on, Chandrasekharan’s murder is back in focus as the CPI(M) has fielded one of its most senior leaders in North Kerala, P. Jayarajan, from Vadakara. Although Jayarajan, the former CPI(M) Kannur district secretary was not directly accused of the murder, many here believe that he was the mastermind.
The CPI(M) leader has a reputation of being behind the gruesome political murders in the region. He is named as an accused in two other such murders, one of which was the brutal killing of Ariyil Shukoor, a young Muslim League youth worker. Shukoor was held hostage by suspected CPI(M) activists and later hacked to death in an open field in front of hundreds of onlookers in 2012.
The activists allegedly thought that he was part of a group of Muslim League workers who had blocked the vehicles of CPI(M) leaders, including one in which Jayarajan was travelling, which were heading to Ariyil town.
As a result, the political narrative in Vadakara isn’t about development, jobs or farmer distress but firmly on political murders.
“He (Jayarajan) has been the figurehead of the political killings in Kannur and now he stands as a candidate,” says K.M. Shahjahan, a one-time close aide of former Communist chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan.
“People in Kerala are peace-loving and non-violent but the CPI(M) has been orchestrating political violence. I feel that these political killings will have an impact not just in Vadakara but in all the seats that the Left is contesting from,” added Shahjahan, who has floated the social organisation Citizens against Violence in Public Life.
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Murders the focus
Jayarajan’s opponent, the United Democratic Front’s (UDF’s) K. Muraleedharan has already taken the opportunity to attack the CPI(M) on fielding a candidate with “blood on his hands”.
The Congress-led UDF has been campaigning on how several political killings in the state, the most recent being the murder of two Youth Congress activists, Kripesh and Sharath Lal, in February, have the Left Democratic Front’s (LDF’s) imprint.
“By fielding Jayarajan from Vadakara, the CPI(M) is challenging the people of Kerala,” Congress leader P.C. Vishnunadh told ThePrint. “If he wins, they will see it as an expression of support for their murder politics. So we want to defeat him at any cost.”
Muraleedharan is the sitting MLA from the Vattiyoorkav constituency in Thiruvananthapuram. He is also the son of former Kerala chief minister K. Karunakaran. The Congress chose Muraleedharan after its sitting MP in Vadakara, Mullappally Ramachandran, did not want to contest.
Muraleedharan has the support of Chandrashekharan’s widow, K.K. Rema, who now heads the RMP. The RMP has not fielded a candidate in Vadakara as it does not want to split the anti-CPI(M) votes.
On its election trail in Vadakara, ThePrint found fielding Jayarajan has tainted the CPI(M)’s image in the area. Ram Kumar, who runs a plastic goods shop in the heart of Thalassery city, said his family have been CPI(M) supporters for several generations. This time around, his family is in a dilemma.
“We all know of his (Jayarajan’s) role in the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case. How can I vote for a man who many believe is a kolayali (murderer)?” asks Kumar.
Vadakara votes with the rest of Kerala on 23 April.
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Victim of political conspiracy, says Jayarajan
Jayarajan, however, has been pointing out that though his name figures in several cases, he has never been found guilty in a court of law. He has also been questioning the Congress’ “double standards” on murder accused.
“How can the Congress suddenly take a moral stand and accuse me when their own candidate who contested from Dharmadom in 2016, opposite Pinarayi Vijayan, was convicted for the murder of a CPI(M) worker?” he said.
The CPI(M) too has been portraying Jayarajan as a victim of a political conspiracy and a leader who has been the victim of a political attack himself.
“Don’t forget that I too had been brutally attacked in 1999 and that too in front of my family,” Jayarajan said. “It is the RSS that did that to me but the UDF has also been using that card to try and defeat me.”
The attack on Jayarajan was on 25 August 1999, when a group of RSS workers threw country-made bombs at his house and barged inside. They attacked Jayarajan and his wife with swords and tried to sever his right arm but he narrowly escaped as the assailants fled when people began to gather.
Kannur-based political analyst N. Sasidharan says that in his assessment the Vadakara constituency will be decisive for the Left. Since Vijayan has ruled over Kerala, there have been more than 20 political murders in the areas surrounding Kannur, Thalassery and Vadakara, he said.
“Violence is in the blood of the political movement in Malabar as there have been several radical movements in this region and Malabar people are ready to die for their political parties,” he said. “The election results in Malabar will determine the future of the Left in Kerala.”
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Still you supported BJP government for entire 5 years whole heartedly and now since you feel a threat for your govt, you are bringing out facts. ARE YOU NOT OPPORTUNIST ?
Development is not a priority of a communist state, it’s more of a joke to her.
Media has been using adjectives like liberal, progressive, secular etc to describe the Left in India. This article flies in face of all those adjectives. Clearly Left has two faces. One of the Sitaram Yechury type and the champagne socialists of JNU. The other is of murderers, like this person, who operate at the ground level. What are the compulsions of the media for not calling spade a spade?