New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, May 22 (IANS) A row has broken out in the now beleaguered Kerala unit of the CPI-M after State Secretary M.V. Govindan on Friday brushed aside questions over the continued denial of party membership to Bineesh Kodiyeri.

Govindan while talking to the media in Delhi, brushed aside the controversy with a smile, describing it merely as a local issue.

He was speaking to reporters ahead of the party’s crucial three-day Central Committee meeting.

However, behind the casual dismissal, lies a deepening internal conflict within the CPI(M), one that has now erupted publicly amid the party’s post-election turmoil following the Left Democratic Front’s crushing defeat in Kerala.

The controversy centers around the continued sidelining of Bineesh, son of late former state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, despite his acquittal in a narcotics related case that had once embarrassed the party leadership.

Bineesh, who had been a CPI(M) member from 2001 and was attached to the AKG Centre branch as a former SFI office-bearer, had his membership frozen in 2020 after his arrest in the case.

The development had then forced Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to temporarily step down from the post of state secretary.

However, in 2023, the Karnataka High Court fully acquitted Bineesh in the case.

Since then, he has repeatedly sought restoration of his membership.

Party sources said Bineesh submitted applications four times through the district secretary seeking re-entry into active party life.

Leaders including former Thiruvananthapuram district secretary V. Joy are also learnt to have written to the state leadership on four occasions demanding that he be readmitted.

Yet, every request was rejected by the state leadership.

The issue exploded during the recent Thiruvananthapuram district committee meeting convened to assess the Left’s humiliating election defeat, where the Left party’s tally crashed from 99 seats to just 35.

Several leaders reportedly questioned why Bineesh continued to be isolated even after being cleared by the courts.

Some openly argued that the treatment being meted out to Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s son amounted to discrimination, particularly since Bineesh had remained one of the strongest defenders of the CPI(M) on social media and public platforms.

Govindan, however, took a tough stand within party forums.

Referring indirectly to a social media post shared by Bineesh after the election results, Govindan reportedly asked, “those demanding that he be given membership — did they notice the post he shared after the results came out?”

The post, carrying Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s photograph with the caption “There is only one Kodiyeri”, is understood to have irked sections of the current leadership led by Pinarayi Vijayan and Govindan.

Bineesh is now into his second term as the Joint Secretary of the Kerala Cricket Association.

The Kodiyeri family was in the news early this month when party rebel candidate T.K. Govindan who trounced M.V. Govindan’s wife P.K. Shymala from the party’s strongest bastion in Kannur, arrived at the home of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan soon after he won the polls.

Both Kodiyeri’s wife and Bineesh went on record to say that their doors will always be open to those who come to pay their respects and regards to the departed leader.

–IANS

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