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 relationship with the CPM.

"But let's be clear here. The CPM wants Kunhikrishnan back not because he is squeaky clean but because he has evidence against one of its useful MLAs," he says. "That's the difference between the fates of MVR and Kunhikrishnan," he says. The party does not want to risk the whistleblower going public with the evidence, says the leader.

The party's tightrope walk is made difficult by the MLA's camp resisting Kunhikrishnan's smooth return by demanding disciplinary action against him. A few supporters of the MLA have threatened to quit the party if Kunhikrishnan is reinstated as the secretary of the Payyanur Area Committee.

'Payyanur CPM, a microcosm party's problems'
Everything in CPM Payyanur is hunky-dory, says T V Rajesh, a former MLA and the secretary in charge of the area committee. "All is fine. The issues are a creation of the media," he tells Onmanorama.

When asked to confirm Madhusoodan's supporters asking for action against Kunhikrishnan in the Area Committee meeting held in the first week of February, Rajesh replied in one word: "imagination".

The CPM is known for its secrecy. But communist leaders watching the party in Payyanur say the disenchantment with the party is growing. "Payyanur CPM is the microcosm of the party's problems in Kerala. It cannot make a course correction. But the election machine that it has become needs the veneer of virtue," says a former CPM leader now with the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP).

In terms of support base, the Payyanur Area Committee is one of the strongest units of CPM in the country.

Payyanur municipality, and two grama panchayats -- Ramanthali and Karivellur-Peralam -- make up the Payyanur Area Committee of the CPM.

The neighbouring Perigome Area Committee consists of Peringome-Vayakkara, Kankol-Alappadamba, Cherupuzha, and Eramam-Kuttur grama panchayats. The seven local bodies make up Payyanur assembly constituency, and all of them are controlled by the CPM.

Around 80% of the 139 wards in the seven local bodies are controlled by the LDF. In at least three panchayats, it controls all the wards. There is no opposition in Payyanur. "That makes it very difficult to be a communist in Payyanur but very easy to be a CPM worker," says the party ideologue.

Running on sleaze and corruption
When Madhusoodanan's term as the secretary of the Payyanur Area Committee came to an end, the party's official candidate to replace him was V Kunhikrishnan, an auditor with cooperative banks.

But K P Madhu, a confidant of Madhusoodanan, took on Kunhikrishnan and went on to win the election.

But in August 2020, the party removed Madhu from the post after he sent his nude photograph to a WhatsApp group of party workers.

The party then made Kunhikrishnan the secretary of the Payyanur Area Committee. That's when he started digging the party's account books.

He reportedly found that Rs 80 lakh from a chit fund started to fund the construction of the Area Committee office was siphoned during Madhusoodanan's tenure. "Around 1,600 to Rs 1,700 party workers had joined the chit fund to help build the office. But Kunhikrishnan reportedly found that the office-bearers siphoned one round of collection," said a source close to Kunhikrishnan.

Though the party office was built in 2018, the income-expense account was not shared with the Area Committee members, Kunhikrishnan found.

Kunhikrishnan also found that the money collected to compensate the family of C V Dhanaraj (38), a victim of political violence in Kannur, was also siphoned.

Dhanaraj was hacked to death allegedly by RSS-BJP workers in his house at Karanthat in Ramanthali grama panchayat on July 11, 2016.

The party built a house for Dhanaraj's widow for Rs 25 lakh. But there were allegations that the spending was inflated.

The party also made fixed deposits of Rs 5 lakh each in the name of the widow, their two children, and another Rs 3 lakh in the name of Dhanaraj's mother.

But Kunhikrishan reportedly found that around Rs 42 lakh of the remaining money was deposited in a private joint account of Madhusoodanan and Madhu. The money was later withdrawn.

According to sources, Kunhikrishnan took the bank statement of Madhussodanan's account to trace the movement of money.

Later in 2021, when Madhusoodanan was nominated as the party's candidate from the Payyanur Assembly constituency, Kunhikrishnan reportedly found that workers collected election funds using forged receipt books.

Kunhikrishnan submitted a detailed report to the state and district leadership of the party.

The party formed committees to go through the allegations and they officially gave a clean chit to all concerned.

But Madhusoodanan was demoted from the District Secretariat to the District Committee of the party in June 2022. For the MLA, considered close to CPM central committee member E P Jayarajan, the punishment was a slap on the wrist.

His confidant T Vishwanathan was demoted to the Local committee from the Area Committee. Area committee members Madhu and K K Gangadharan were publicly censured.

But Kunhikrishnan was reportedly shocked when the party removed him from the post of Area Committee secretary. "Sixteen of the 21 members of the Area Committee were against the decision. Yet, the leadership removed him from the post," said a leader close to Kunhikrishnan.

T V Rajesh was asked to take charge of the secretary post for the time being.

A hurt Kunhikrishnan withdrew from public life in protest.

'They want him ahead of the Lok Sabha election'
After the disciplinary action against him, Kunhikrishnan wrote to the central committee and the state committee of the CPM, with copies of the evidence he had against Madhusoodanan. "That must have rattled the district leadership," she said the leader quoted above.

By November 2022, M V Govindan was at the helm of the party and the grip of E P Jayarajan on the party's Kannur unit loosened.

"Govindan wants to end the disgruntlement among party workers for keeping Kunhikrishnan away ahead of the Lok Sabha election," says another party leader in Payyanur.

Madhusoodanan is a good orator, organiser, and fund-raiser. He has a team to get things done, the leader says. "In contrast, Kunhikrishnan keeps to himself. But his honesty and uprightness have won him quite a following in places such as Karivellur panchayat and Vellur in Payyanur municipality," he says.

Govindan wants a tight ship ahead of the election. State committee member K P Satheesh Chandran, who lost to Congress's Rajmohan Unnithan in 2019, has started working as the convenor of the LDF election committee in the constituency.

CPM Kannur district secretary M V Jayarajan set the tone by announcing on December 2 that V Kunhikrishnan did not do wrong and the party had not taken any action against him.

Later he sent the party's emissaries T V Rajesh and C Krishnan, both former MLAs, and district committee member V Narayanan to V Kunhikrishnan's house. (V Narayanan and V Kunhikrishnan are brothers.)

Kunhikrishnan assured them that he would attend the next meeting of the Payyanur Area Committee.

But supporters of Kunhikrishnan laughed at M V Jayarajan's 'did no wrong, took no action' comment.

They cited the party's constitution Section 19 (4) (d) and said removing a person from their post is a serious disciplinary action, lesser only to suspension from the primary membership of the party and expulsion. The lighter forms of disciplinary actions according to Section 19 (4) (a), (b), and (c) are warning, censuring, and public censuring.

When Kunhikrishnan attended three meetings of the Area Committee in the first week of February, he raised the issue of fund embezzlement by Madhusoodanan. "He did not get any satisfactory answers on that or on why he was removed from the post of secretary in the first place," said a person who attended the meeting.

The meetings were attended by CPM district secretary M V Jayarajan and state committee member P Jayarajan.

At least one of the 21 members of the committee demanded action against Kunhikrishnan for skipping three meetings in a row.

In a bid to pressure the leadership to act against Kunhikrishnan, many supporters of Madhusoodanan are staying away from the 'organisational discussions' of the party's local committees under the Payyanur Area Committee.

To be sure, M V Govindan is starting a campaign against the alleged communal politics of the Union government and the RSS from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram from February 20 to March 18.

"He wants the Payyanur unit of the CPM to put up a united front when the yatra reaches Payyanur," said the leader close to Kunhikrishnan.

The show of unity will be a band-aid to cover up the fractures in the party. "In any case, it is not likely to happen because, after the Area Committee meetings, Kunhikrishnan has broken his leg. He will be out of play for some time," said the leader.