The CPI(M) Alappuzha unit has found itself in a predicament over recent controversies involving its leaders.
Last week, wife of Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran’s former personal staff member lodged a police complaint alleging that the Minister’s remarks at a press conference in Alappuzha on April 11 were damaging to womanhood and could provoke communal tension.
While the complainant has been identified as a former Students Federation of India Alappuzha district committee member, her husband is the Purakkad local committee member of the CPI(M), who was ousted from the Minister’s staff a few months ago.
After showing initial reluctance, the Ambalappuzha police recorded statements of the petitioner after she stood firm on her complaint despite “pressure to withdraw the petition”. The police have not yet registered a case based on the complaint.
Factional feud
It has been alleged that the complaint against the Minister was the result of “growing factional feud” in the party’s district unit. Mr. Sudhakaran, who denied denigrating womanhood, said the allegations against him were the handiwork of “political criminals”.
Although the party district leadership has rallied behind Mr. Sudhakaran, the controversy has refused to die down.
CPI(M) district secretary R. Nazar termed the allegations against the Minister baseless. He also refuted reports that Mr. Sudhakaran was inactive during the Left Democratic Front’s campaigning for the Assembly polls.
FB post controversy
Even as the party is grappling with the police complaint against one of its senior leaders in the district, its Kayamkulam MLA U. Prathibha has landed in a controversy after an old Malayalam proverb appeared on her Facebook page on Tuesday night that loosely translates to ‘God would punish those who seek to harm innocent people’.
Many on social media saw it as a jibe at Mr. Sudhakaran. Others said she was expressing her sentiments after being betrayed by a section of the party in the Assembly polls in Kayamkulam. The post was later removed from the page.
Ms. Prathibha, however, denied posting the comment and said her Facebook account had been “hijacked”. She later filed a police complaint.
