Kasaragod: If the double murder of Youth Congress workers Kripesh and P K Sarathlal in February 2019 had galvanised Congress workers and united the party leaders in the run-up to the previous Lok Sabha election, five years on, the political killings have brought out the differences and hypocrisy among the leaders in Kasaragod.

Despite running and winning the election over the double murder, several local and state Congress leaders hobnobbed with an accused at his son's wedding reception in Periya on May 7. The disciplinary action and the public reactions have left the party workers embarrassed.

Sunday night, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) secretary Balakrishnan Periya publicly aired his indignation against Kasaragod MP and KPCC's official spokesperson Rajmohan Unnithan, whom he disdainfully described as an "outsider, who pitted Congress workers in the district against one another, and plotted his defeat in the Udma Assembly constituency in 2021".

"I am leaving the party because of Unnithan," Balakrishnan Periya said in a Facebook post that had a life of less than one hour. "I took down the post because the party's state leadership intervened," Balakrishnan Periya told Onmanorama.

He is miffed with Unnithan because the MP, who according to him acts as the defacto boss of the Congress in the district, lambasted party leaders for attending the wedding reception of the son of N Balakrishnan, CPM's former Periya Local Secretary and the 13th accused in the double murder of Kripesh and Sarathlal.

A day after the wedding reception, a photograph of Congress's Periya Mandalam president Pramod Periya posing with the bride and the groom and accused N Balakrishnan at the wedding was widely shared by Congress workers on social media. The photograph also had former Udma MLA K Kunhiraman.

The KPCC immediately removed Pramod Periya from the post of mandalam president, pending enquiry.

But the trouble for the Congress had only started. Soon, party workers dug up a one-year-old photograph of District Congress General Secretary Dhanya Suresh posing with the same accused in front of an ancestral shrine (tharavad) in Periya, and demanded action against her too.

Dhanya Suresh, daughter of the late Congress leader Gangadharan Nair, was the party's candidate in the Kanhangad Assembly constituency in 2016. She lost to CPI's E Chandrasekharan by over 26,000 votes.

The controversial photograph clicked during a consecration ceremony in 2023, also had Pramod Periya and the incumbent Udma MLA C H Kunhambu, who is the CPM's district secretary in charge now.

Congress party workers said they had brought the photograph of Dhanya Suresh "smiling and posing" with the accused to the notice of the leadership last year itself but no action was taken. Now they are demanding disciplinary action against him.

But soon the party leadership learnt that Balakrishnan Periya, a professional radio jockey and voice artiste, was the emcee at the wedding reception of the accused's son.

On Saturday, May 11, Rajmohan Unnithan wrote a scathing post on his Facebook targetting Balakrishnan Periya but did not mention his name.

"Some Congress leaders attended the wedding reception in the family of CPM leader N Balakrishnan, who shamelessly announced through public address system that his party killed Youth Congress workers P K Sarath Lal and Kripesh for the same reason Lord Krishna killed Kamsa -- to establish Dharma," read Unnithan's opening salvo.

The Congress, or those who honour the martyrs, cannot justify or explain the presence of certain Congress leaders, regardless of their high positions, at the wedding reception, he said. "They have committed an irreparable offence to the Congress party and the martyrs' families. It cannot be forgiven. They surely deserve the party's disciplinary action," Unnithan said.

After Periya's double murder, hundreds of family members affiliated to the Congress have been framed in fake cases and they are running around police stations and courts, he said. "At that time, some leaders are indulging in this absurd drama. Even the souls of Sarath Lal and Kripesh will not forgive them," he said.

"I will dismiss with contempt the people and their families who are not considerate of the martyrs, their families and Congress party workers, who put up a stellar work without expecting anything in return," Unnithan said.

Those who put up an act of standing with the victims and then living for the predators are despicable, he said and hinted that they might have unsuccessfully tried to torpedo his election campaign in 2019. "How can anyone believe that this nexus did not work against me during the 2019 election?"

"I would like to remind such people that they do not have any place in the Indian National Congress," the official spokesperson said in the Facebook post.

Balakrishnan Periya has a large extended family with more than 30 votes in Periya and though Unnithan did not mention him, he left no doubt among Congress workers that the KPCC secretary was in his crosshairs.

A day after Unnithan's post, which is still on Facebook, Balakrishnan Periya posted an old photograph of Unnithan having food with the 14th accused in the double murder case and DYFI leader K Manikandan, who is also the president of Kanhangad Block Panchayat.

According to sources, the photograph was from the house of Shanavas Padhoor, son of the late Padoor Kunhamu, but today he is with the LDF and the Vice-President of Kasaragod District Panchayat.

In his now-deleted Facebook post, Balakrishnan accused Unnithan of conspiring to defeat him in the Udma Assembly Constituency election in 2021. "This is a discussion between Rajmohan Unnithan and Kalliyot murder accused K Manikandan under the cover of night," Balakrishnan Periya wrote.

"Unnithan, to defeat me in the election, has gone to several houses, including the house of Shanavas Padhoor, who destroyed the Congress and went to the CPM," he wrote. Balakrishnan Periya had lost to C H Kunhambu by 13,322 votes and the Congress's vote share fell by over two percentage points.

Balakrishnan Periya said Unnithan had not spent even Rs 1,000 in the double murder case of Sarath Lal and Kripesh. But the MP was able to dismiss with contempt ordinary people like him because of the backing of the party high command, he said.

In contrast, he described himself as a member of a "martyr's family" and showed courage to insist and ensure both Kripesh and Sarath Lal were cremated at the same place. "Since 1984, the CPM has ostracised my family but we seven brothers wore white clothes and stood for the Congress," he said. "All my brothers are accused in several cases. My brother's house was bombed. CPM tried to hack to death my (brother's) son."

"In this parliament election, 32 votes were cast on the hand symbol by my family and I lost my voice going around the constituency giving speeches for the party," he said.

"In the end, this outsider, who created friction among all Congress workers in the district, is now asking me to leave the party.

"I am leaving the party for Unnithan. For now, I am releasing only this night photograph. Rest in the press conference," Balakrishnan Periya said in the Facebook post.

But most party workers criticised him for turning against the Congress in their comments. Later, he not only deleted the post, he also cancelled the press conference.

But another party leader said that the Congress in Kasaragod would see more infighting and revolt against Unnithan's "autocratic rule".

District Congress president P K Faisal did not attend to several calls made to his phone. "I know leaders, except for K Sudhakaran and K C Venugopal, will use this Facebook post as an excuse to expel me from the party," Balakrishnan had written. When contacted, he said he would like to put the controversy behind him as the party leadership was apprised of the matter.