Veteran CPI(M) leader E.P. Jayarajan has stepped down as LDF convener. Jayarajan, who has faced several controversies, was appointed to the role in 2022 after A. Vijayaraghavan ascended to the polit bureau. Interestingly, his resignation reportedly occurred before the CPI(M) state secretariat today, at which Jayarajan's controversial meeting with BJP leader Prakash Javadekar was reportedly an agenda for discussion.
In April, just before the Lok Sabha election polling, BJP State Vice-President Sobha Surendran revealed that Jayarajan had met with Javadekar. On the morning of the election, Jayarajan admitted that he had in fact met Javadekar at his son's apartment in the state’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram. Though he insisted that no political discussions occurred during the meeting, the damage was done.
This revelation, followed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's public censure of Jayarajan, has placed the CPI(M) on the defensive, undermining the LDF's election narrative that the principal opposition in Kerala, Congress, is a party of defectors to the BJP.
Jayarajan, who served as an MLA from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2011 to 2021, was the Minister of Industries and Sports in the first Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet. In October 2016, just five months after taking office, he was forced to resign over allegations of nepotism for appointing his family members to lead public sector undertakings in the state. In September 2017, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) acquitted him of these charges, allowing him to return to the cabinet.
For over two years, there have been speculations of a rift between Jayarajan and the party leadership. Earlier, during a party state committee meeting, prominent Kannur CPI(M)leader P. Jayarajan raised serious allegations against him. In 2023, when party state secretary M.V. Govindan led the Janakeeya Prathirodha Yatra, Jayarajan's absence in the early stages of the yatra was conspicuous. Although Govindan dismissed media speculation that Jayarajan deliberately stayed away out of personal spite, it was evident that the LDF convenor’s relationship with the party leadership was strained.
When the controversy over Jayarajan's meeting with Javadekar first surfaced, the CPI had demanded his removal from the post of LDF convenor. Last month, similar sentiments were reportedly echoed at the CPI state council, which suggested that Jayarajan was unsuitable for the role of left front convenor. THE WEEK attempted to reach Jayarajan for a comment on the current developments, but he was unavailable by phone.
