Thiruvananthapuram: CPM state secretary M V Govindan on Saturday confirmed that E P Jayarajan had been eased out of the influential post of LDF convenor. Former minister and MLA T P Ramakrishnan has replaced Jayarajan.
Govindan, while briefing reporters after the party State Committee meeting here on Saturday, had cited two reasons for removing Jayarajan from the post. One, he said Jayarajan had certain limitations in performing as LDF convenor.
Two, he said all that Jayarajan said during the Lok Sabha elections were also taken into account, and this included Jayarajan's admission that BJP leader Prakash Javadekar had visited him at his son's house in Thiruvananthapuram. Even while admitting that the visit had taken place, Jayaran maintained that he had only given Javadekar a cursory greeting and quickly left the house. The party has not taken Jayarajan's defence at face value.
Besides, lending credence to the grapevine that he was straying right, Jayarajan had remarked that the BJP had put up some "excellent" candidates for the Parliament. Soon came the revelation that the Ayurveda resort he was linked to (Vaideham) had a working partnership with Niraamaya Wellness Retreats, a company backed by BJP's Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha candidate and then union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar's Jupiter Capital. This had caused huge embarrassment for the party.
However, the first reason Govindan cited to keep Jayarajan out of the convenor post was left largely unexplained. Govindan only said that Jayarajan had certain limitations in functioning as the convenor but did not elaborate. He said that it was not political or ideological limitations he was referring to and left it at that.
Close party observers Onmanorama talked to said the party was unhappy with Jayarajan's performance as LDF convenor ever since M V Govindan assumed the role of the party secretary.
In 2023, it had caused a huge flutter in the party when Jayarajan chose to skip Govindan's Janakeeya Prathirodha Jatha, his first all-Kerala march as state secretary, and instead chose to attend the birthday of the mother of the controversial middleman Nandakumar. This was seen as Jayarajan's way of snubbing his new boss.
Jayarajan's resentment was the fall-out of a turf war between himself and the former Kannur district secretary, P Jayrajan. It was reported that P Jayarajan had levelled serious charges of financial misconduct against E P, related particularly to Vaideham Ayurveda Healing Village in Kannur's Morazha village and in which E P's wife and son had decisive stakes.
EP was miffed by the way the party handled the issue and quickly went into non-cooperation mode. He went on an undeclared leave, even refused to call LDF meetings at crucial moments. This was seen as a sign of defiance. If he was spared all this while, it was because of his closeness to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Party insiders see his removal from the convenor's post as a kind of punishment, even if it had arrived a bit late.
Nonetheless, given his influence in the CPM, especially in Kannur, Jayarajan has been retained in the Central Committee, the party's highest body after the Politburo. In other words, he has not been downgraded though his mistakes were viewed gravely by the party. At the most, his removal from the convenor post can be seen as a rebuke, the mildest form of disciplinary action in the party.
