When a letter supposedly written by Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran to the CPM district secretary Anavoor Nagappan came to light, Nagappan had hit back saying that the CPM was not in the habit of writing such letters. "Neither has the Mayor sent us a letter nor have we received one," Nagappan had said last week at the height of the anti-Mayor stir in front of the Corporation.

The controversial letter, whose veracity is yet to be proved, contained the details of vacancies in the Corporation and had requested the CPM district secretary to provide the candidates. The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has come to a standstill after the letter became public.

Now, another letter written by Nagappan himself, telling an office bearer of District Mercantile Cooperative Society, that they can appoint Manju V S in the clerk section and Kiran J S as driver has come to light. The same letter also contains a direction against new appointments in the attender section of the Society.

This letter was seen as a rebuttal of the CPM district secretary's earlier assertion that the party did not indulge in such job-related communication.

Nagappan, however, was unfazed. He owned up the letter. "It is true that I have written the letter," the CPM district secretary told reporters at the CPM District Committee office on Wednesday.

He said the letter was not given to the Mercantile Cooperative Society but to Vyapari Vyavasayi Samithi, a CPM-affiliated organisation that was running the Society. He said Babujan, to whom his letter is addressed, was the secretary of Vyapari Vyavasayi Samithi, and not an office bearer of the mercantile Society as his letter would suggest. He said the Society was mistakenly mentioned when he addressed Babujan.

Nagappan apparently looked surprised that the letter had stoked great media interest. "What is wrong in this," he asked. First of all, he said the letter was written in reply to a query from the Samithi.

"The Society wanted to make some recruitments. After conducting the test, there was an internal realisation that absorbing all the candidates who have made the cut could heap a huge financial burden on the society. The Samithi conveyed this to us and we told them it was fine to appoint just a clerk and a driver. Other vacancies can be filled up later," Nagappan said.

"The party had also decided that any step that would push cooperative societies into more financial troubles should be avoided. Appointments can be done only after taking into account the financial capacity of the society," he added.

When he was specifically reminded of his earlier statement that the party was not in the habit of writing letters, Nagappan seemed to suggest that his comment was limited to Corporation affairs. "The Corporation neither asks nor we provide," he said and wound up the press interaction abruptly.