Kasaragod: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran expelled four leaders from the primary membership of the party for hobnobbing with an accused in the Periya double murder case at the wedding reception of his son.
Those expelled are KPCC secretary Balakrishnan Periya, former Kanhangad block president Rajan Periya, and two former Periya Mandalam presidents Pramod Periya and T Ramakrishnan.
The party took disciplinary action based on the inquiry report submitted by KPCC general secretary Advocate P M Niyas and M Subramaniyan, member of the party's political affairs committee. The panel said they took the statement of 38 people, including the parents of the slain Youth Congress workers Kripesh and P K Sarathlal. The parents were angry with the Congress leaders for attending the reception and the two-member committee's report reflected that. The panel, instituted by K Sudhakaran, also found that Balakrishnan Periya defamed Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan on social media.
The four expelled Congress leaders had attended the wedding reception of the son of CPM's former Periya local secretary N Balakrishnan, the 13th accused in the murder of the Youth Congress workers.
N Balakrishnan's son got married in Payyannur and then on Tuesday, May 7, the new couple organised a reception in Periya. Soon after the reception, the photographs of the Congress leaders posing with the accused started doing the rounds on social media.
On May 8, the KPCC president suspended the party's Periya Mandalam President Pramod Periya from the post, pending inquiry.
But soon the party leadership came to know that KPCC Secretary Balakrishnan Periya, a professional radio jockey and voice artiste, was the emcee at the wedding reception of the accused's son.
On May 11, 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.
Late in the night on May 12, Balakrishnan Periya publicly aired his indignation against Kasaragod MP and KPCC's official spokesperson Rajmohan Unnithan, disdainfully describing him as an "outsider, who pitted Congress workers in the district against one another, and plotted his defeat in the Udma Assembly constituency in 2021". He shared a photograph of Unnithan with K Manikandan, the DYFI leader and Kanhangad Block Panchayat President, who is also the 14th accused in the double murder case, to suggest that the MP committed the same crime he accused others of.
Balakrishnan Periya then wrote: "I am leaving the party because of Unnithan".
Balakrishnan Periya took down the post in less than an hour "because the party's state leadership intervened", he told Onmanorama. He also cancelled the press conference he planned on May 13 to expose Unnithan.
But the truce in the Kasaragod Congress was temporary. Unnithan's victory by over 1 lakh votes against CPM's District Secretary M V Balakrishnan in the Lok Sabha election reiterated his position as the numero uno in Kasaragod's Congress committee. And it was just a matter of time before Balakrishnan Periya was shown the door for publicly taking on Unnithan, said his supporters.
'The war against Unnithan begins now'
Balakrishnan Periya said party President Sudhakaran expelled him from the party under pressure from Unnithan because the MP knew several of his secrets. "Unnithan is a loose tongue. Sudhakaran did not want to take a risk by going against the wishes of Unnithan," he said.
Balakrishnan said the wedding reception was an apolitical function and several Youth Congress workers had also attended it. "We always stood with the families of the two martyrs. The two belonged to two different castes and it was decided to cremate them at different places. We intervened and said we would give the money for 10 cents so that they shared the same resting place," he said.
He said he took up the legal fight for the two victims. "Today, a section of Congress leaders are baying for our blood in the name of the martyrs," he said.
Training his guns on the MP, he said Unnithan won in Kasaragod by exploiting the communal conflicts there. That is why he removed the tilak on his forehead. He lied when he said he removed the tilak because of a skin allergy. "Let any skin specialist say that and I will end whatever is left of my public life," he said.
Balakrishnan, however, said he was not leaving the party or going to hurt the party.
