A lawyer and Thiruvananthapuram-based local CPI leader, Balu S S, on Thursday issued a notice to Nilambur MLA P V Anvar demanding a public apology for his "baseless, callous, nefarious and wanton" bribery allegations against the party, and leaders like former state secretary Veliyam Bhargavan, at a press conference in Alappuzha on October 14. Anvar had said that the Ernad seat in Malappuram district was sold by the CPI to the Muslim League (IUML) twice (2011 and 2021) for money.
The notice has directed Anvar to hold a press conference, "like the one you convened" at Alappuzha, to apologise publicly for his remarks against the party and its leaders within 15 days of receiving the notice. If Anvar fails to do this, the notice said that legal steps would be initiated to recover Rs 1 crore as damages.
During his interaction with the media on October 14, Anvar had said that in 2011 the then party secretary Veliyam Bhargavan accepted Rs 25 lakh from the League and fielded a weak candidate for the CPI. He said that the money was paid by the League’s Kollam-based leader Yunis Kunju.
Anvar had broken away from the Congress and contested as an independent from Ernad in 2011. Anvar had said that the CPI Malappuram District Committee was keen to field him but Bhargavan intervened at the last minute and introduced a new candidate who according to Anvar "even CPI cadres were unfamiliar with".
Then, IUML's P K Basheer, who still represents Ernad, won the seat with a margin of over 11,000 votes. Anvar came second with 41.47% votes. The CPI candidate, Ashrafali Kaliyath, was fourth behind the BJP and could manage just 2.36% of the votes.
However, the notice served by Babu S S points to a flaw in Anvar's charge. "Veliyam Bhargavan was not the CPI state secretary at the material time." (Bhargavan had retired in 2010 due to ill health.) After the defeat, Anvar shifted to Nilambur, which he now represents in the Assembly.
Anvar had further alleged that such a "purchase" happened in 2021, too, when Kanam Rajendran was CPI state secretary. Then, too, the MLA said that an obscure candidate, who had just retired from the PWD and who was not familiar to voters in Ernad, was chosen. He said the CPI leadership led by Kanam had misled the CPI cadres by saying that the candidate was chosen on the directions of Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar. Anvar said he had raised the issue back then and had even dared Kanam to move legally against him.
Fact is, the LDF-backed independent, K T Abdurahiman was not an unfamiliar face. He was the LDF candidate in 2016 also. However, Abdurahiman's vote share had fallen from 41.34% in 2016 to 38.76% in 2021. In both years, IUML's P K Basheer was the winner.
Anvar had also alleged that CPI leaders K Rajan (the revenue minister) and P P Suneer (Rajya Sabha MP) had collected huge sums of money from quarry owners in Wayanad during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The notice, sent through his lawyer M Salahuddin, says: "My client being a member of Communist Party of India has (been) deeply wounded by such scurrilous remarks about the Communist Party of India along with hundreds of thousands of party members, whom my client represents. All the allegations are not only false but made with the malicious intention to defame the members of the party."