Kannur: When the CPM ousted the charismatic yet pugnacious Payyanur MLA M V Raghavan from the party in 1986, the then CPM general secretary E M S Namboodiripad famously said: “The party is greater than Raghavan. Nothing will happen to the party but Raghavan will end up in political oblivion”.
Raghavan, who many believed was in line to become the chief minister of Kerala, ended up being a mere minister in the Congress-led UDF government, twice. But the CPM never tried to bring MVR, as he was popularly known, to its corner. Not till he died in 2014.
Contrast that with the CPM's eagerness to woo back V Kunhikrishnan -- a little-known grassroots leader from Payyanur -- who quit politics and public life because the party penalised him for blowing the whistle on Payyanur MLA T I Madhusoodan.
When Kunhikrishnan was the secretary of Payyanur Area Committee of the CPM, he reportedly dug up evidence of Madhusoodan allegedly embezzling funds meant to build a party office, compensate a 'martyr's' family, and fight his own election.
The CPM responded by removing Kunhikrishnan from the post of secretary and demoting Madhusoodan from the CPM Kannur Secretariat -- the highest decision-making body in the district -- to the Kannur District Committee in June 2022.
Now, the CPM wants Kunhikrishnan back but cannot afford to alienate Madhusoodan, an important fundraiser and events organiser of the party. "The party is in a spot," says a Marxist ideologue in Payyanur who has a love-hate...
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