Kannur: The Congress in the Kalliasseri and Payyannur assembly segments is seeing a wave of resignations, suspensions, boycotts, and protests after a party-run cooperative-aided college, headed by Kozhikode's three-time MP M K Raghavan, filled three of the four vacant non-teaching posts with relatives CPM leaders.

Congress workers claimed that these appointments were not only made based on recommendations but also involved bribes of Rs 15 lakh each. District Congress President Martin George suspended five college directors, including M K Balakrishnan, a close relative of Raghavan, for not stopping these appointments at the Cooperative Arts and Science College, Madayi, at Pazhayangadi.

A defiant Raghavan, in a press conference in Delhi on Tuesday, said he could not deny jobs to candidates based on their political affiliations. "If Martin George knew how the appointments are made in an aided college, he would correct his mistakes. It is not like in cooperative society," Raghavan said.

However, this explanation neither quelled nor sat well with grassroots workers. Congress leaders and workers in Kannur district -- where the party is locked in a fierce battle with an aggressive and intolerant CPM -- protested against Raghavan and branded him a 'traitor'.

The uproar is the loudest at Kunhimangalam grama panchayat, a CPM bastion and Raghavan's hometown. All 36 members of the Kunhimangalam Congress Mandalam Committee resigned on December 9, and the same night, they took out a protest march and burned Raghavan in effigy at Pazhayangadi. On December 10 night, they marched to Raghavan's house at Mosaari Kovval in ward 12 (Kuthirummal) of Kunhimangalam. They again burned him in effigy, despite Raghavan saying earlier in the day that "burning my effigy is equal to setting me on fire".

The appointments and the red flag
In 1982, aged 29, Raghavan spearheaded the process of starting the college at Madayi. The then K Karunakaran government gave the seed money of Rs 15 lakh and transferred 25 acres of Devaswom land for the college, which was managed by the Congress-controlled Payyannur Cooperative Society. It became the first government-aided cooperative college in India. Raghavan is the chairman of the 11-member board of directors of the college and also the Payyannur Cooperative Society.

On December 7, the college conducted interviews to fill four posts—three office assistant posts, one reserved for a person with disabilities, and one for a computer assistant. The three-member interview board included the college vice-president KK Phalgunan, a joint secretary from the finance department as the government nominee, and an external expert.

After the interview, the panel selected MK Dhanesh and D Poduval Bharat for the two open office assistant posts, A Dhanesh for the post reserved for persons with disabilities, and C Divya for the computer assistant post.

MK Dhanesh is Raghavan's close relative and Congress workers described him as a "cyber porali" or a social media activist for the DYFI, the youth wing of the CPM from Mosaari Kovval. Till recently as the Lok Sabha election, he went from door to door campaigning against Rajmohan Unnithan, the Congress candidate in Kasaragod constituency, said Kunhimangalam Congress Mandalam Vice-President VV Prakashan.

D Poduval is the Payyannur Block Youth Congress president and the only Congress worker to get the job. A Dhanesh, a person with hearing and speech disabilities, is from a CPM family in Payyannur but is a relative of college director M Pradeepkumar. After A Dhanesh's appointment became controversial, the Congress mandalam president KP Harish from Velloor near Payyannur stepped down from the post, and admitted he recommended Dhanesh, said party workers.

Pressure is mounting on Congress Mandalam President TP Chandran from Cherupuzha to step down, as he had recommended Divya for the computer assistant post. Divya is married to Chandran's brother-in-law and hails from Karivellur, a CPM stronghold. Her family is also known to support the CPM, said Congress workers.

The Youth Congress in Cherupuzha grama panchayat has publicly announced that it would boycott events attended by Chandran. In the press meet in Delhi, Raghavan argued that political affiliations were not a factor in the appointments at the aided college. He spent considerable time explaining the appointment process in the disabilities quota.

On M K Dhanesh's appointment, he said no one could prove he was his blood relation though he could be from his extended family. However, when a reporter asked if the anger of Congress workers and the DCC was not justified, given that the Congress manages the college, Raghavan responded: "The DCC's recommendation was also accepted". His comment hinted at the appointment of Youth Congress leader Bharat but indirectly acknowledged irregularities in the process.

But on the day of the interview on December 7, Youth Congress Kunhimangalam mandalam president Nidheesh TV, an applicant for the post of office assistant, gave a letter to the undersecretary asking him not to sign the rank list because it was already fixed. "The society invited us to the interview to humiliate us as it had already taken bribes to appoint MK Dhanesh and Bharat D Poduval to the two posts of office assistant," he wrote and added that the two candidates paid Rs 10 lakh in advance and would pay another Rs 5 lakh after getting the appointment letters.

When contacted, Nidheesh said he was informed by a few college board directors that posts were up for sale. Prakashan said Raghavan's extended family started pulling the strings to place Dhanesh in the college in 2021 when Satheeshan Pacheni was the district president. "Pacheni scuttled it," he said.

Another Congress leader said that during the Payyannur Cooperative Society's functions to distribute scholarships to students from its endowment fund, the MP's cousin and Congress leader Balakrishnan would ask Dhanesh to serve tea to guests. "We warned him not to call him for such events again," he said. Recently, the MK family claimed that Dhanesh joined the Congress. But the Kunhimangalam mandala president and ward president of the Congress refuted this.

However, the grassroots workers of Kunhimangalam were certain that Dhanesh would be placed in the college as early as August. On August 28, around 300 Congress workers from Ward 12 of Kunhimangalam signed a petition asking the party to ensure that Dhanesh was not given the job. The petition was given to Congress state president K Sudhakaran, District Congress President Martin George, Congress national General Secretary KC Venugopal, Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan, and several other office bearers.

Suspensions and counter-suspension
On the day of the interview, when Raghavan came to the college, four Congress leaders waylaid him and asked him to stop recruiting Dhanesh. "He said he would do what he likes," said one of the four leaders. Raghavan complained that they spoke rudely, an allegation the four leaders denied.

That evening, DCC president George suspended the four leaders -- DCC executive committee member Kapadan Sasidharan and Kalliasseri block president; Varun Krishnan, Madayi Block Secretary; K P Sasi, Kunhimangalam Mandalam executive committee member; and K V Satheesh Kumar, Kunhimangalam Mandalam Secretary.

The party decision enraged the workers. The next day on December 8, George sent Kannur DCC secretary Rajith Narath as his emissary to talk with the Kunhimangalam Congress workers. "We had only two demands, to review the appointments and to revoke the suspension of the four Congress workers," said Prakashan.

However, on December 9, they learned that Raghavan had given the four candidates appointment orders, and they joined the college. The four were also given membership in the Congress' association for non-teaching staff, the Kerala Private College Ministerial Staff Association, the same day. Later in the day, the 36-member Kunhimangalam Mandalam committee met at the Gandhi Mandiram at Edat and resigned en masse.

Pinning their hopes on local body polls
The Congress workers in Kunhimangalam were nursing, hoping that they could make inroads into the panchayat in the 2025 local body election because a lot of CPM-supporting families fell off with the party after it took control of the committee of the revered Malliyodu Palottu Kavu, said Prakashan. Today, 12 of the 14 wards are with the LDF and the two with the IUML. In 2020, the CPM lost one ward in the neighbouring 18-member Cheruthazham grama panchayat, another red bastion, because of the issue at the sacred grove. "We did not want to organise a protest against our party when we were on the brink of a political breakthrough in Kunhimangalam and Cheruthazham. But the MP left us with no choice. If we don't stand with our workers, they will leave the party," said a Congress leader. "The DCC knows that," he said.

When the college proceeded with the appointments, the DCC president suspended five of the 11 college management directors from the party's primary membership.

They are college vice president K K Phalgunan, who was on the interview board; Raghavan's relative M K Balakrishnan; M Pradeepkumar, the relative of recruit A Dhanesh; and T Karunakaran and P T Pratheesh. The official reason is that they worked against the party's interests.

The same evening, Congress workers from Kunhimangalam and Madayi held an angry demonstration at Pazhayangadi town, 2km from the college.

The MP called the protesters applicants who did not get the jobs. "Some people are instigating those who were not given jobs to stage demonstrations against me," Raghavan told reporters in Delhi.

He expected the party to put out the fire. "If I am guilty, take action against me. If not, take the right stance," he said. But if you try to isolate me, defame me, or make me look like a liar and a thief, people of Kerala know me, and they will see through it."

“Raghavan is a senior leader, so only the KPCC can resolve the matter. I have written to the KPCC with all the details. It is likely to constitute an inquiry committee," DCC president told Onmanroama. Meanwhile, his emissary Rajith Narath wrote on Facebook: "Time will brand you as traitors to your clan."