Former CPI-M minister hints quitting party, cites ‘mockery’ by state secretary — ‘No one corrected this’

After narrating a few instances that he felt were “insulting”, Sudhakaran said that despite this, “I have continued in the party here for the past five years. I did not yield to any temptation”.

“When the party state secretary stated that I do not deserve any consideration and even laughed mockingly, I saw the journalists burst into laughter as well. No one has been ready to question or correct this,” he said.

After being a member of the CPI(M) state committee for 43 years, Sudhakaran was removed from the body in 2022 and demoted to a branch committee member in Alappuzha.

“Since then, I have been functioning as a Branch Committee member under the Alappuzha district committee. However, the party district secretary did not inquire about me or give me any tasks in the last five years despite being a member for the last 63 years. When the party organised a meeting near my house to mark the 50th year of the Emergency, I was not even invited despite being the only living leader who had been tortured and jailed during the Emergency. A local committee member shared a Facebook post insulting even my father; he is the close loyalist of a district committee member,” said Sudhakaran in his Facebook post.

Sudhakaran said he does not want to narrate more incidents.

“In this situation I do not want to cause trouble for the party leaders. Hence when the membership renewal is going on, I have voluntarily decided not to renew it. At the same time, I will continue to stand firmly with the people and with the party’s ideology and principles.’’

Senior CPI(M) leader and Left Democratic Front convener T P Ramakrishnan Wednesday told the media that Sudhakaran “has every right to renew or not renew party membership”.

“He can continue as a party sympathiser. There are a lot of such people. The party does not have a stand belittling anyone,” he said.

Sudhakaran has kept a low profile in the party since 2021, when the CPI(M) decided to drop all sitting MLAs who had completed two consecutive terms. By that time, he had already served four terms as a legislator and two terms as a minister.

In November 2021, the CPI(M) publicly censured Sudhakaran for allegedly failing to work for the success of the party candidate in the Assembly polls that year in Ambalapuzha constituency, which he had represented. The CPI(M) candidate in Ambalapuzha was H Salam. Sudhakaran, according to some district leaders, continued to sulk after being denied the ticket and purportedly showed a lackadaisical approach during electioneering. While Salam won the seat, the party decided to look into what it saw as Sudhakaran’s lapses in working for that success and appointed a commission to probe the issue.