As Modi arrives in Kerala: CPI-M turns jittery after BJP digs up 2012 murder of TP Chandrasekharan

By KA Antony The Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala is jittery as the Bharatiya Janata Party is bent on ordering a re-investigation into the top-level political conspiracy that led to the murder of CPI-M rebel and Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam in 2012. In connection with the probe, the BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan has offered all help possible  to RMP leaders, including KK Rema, Chandrasekharan’s widow. After a meeting with Rema and other RMP leaders, Rajasekharan made it clear that he would send a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to consider the RMP plea for a CBI probe. [caption id=“attachment_2607920” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of TP Chandrasekharan. IBNLive[/caption] Talking to Firstpost, Rema said she hoped things would finally turn in her favour. “We have been demanding a CBI inquiry into the murder as only such a probe would bring out the conspiracy angle. Everybody in Kerala knows that comrade Chandrasekharan was murdered with knowledge about certain top-level leaders of the CPI-M. The state government did nothing to dig into the conspiracy angle. In fact, the government  derailed the inquiry,” she said. Rema said she has already sent a petition to Modi requesting  a CBI probe. “We had also sought an appointment with the prime minister, who is coming to Kozhikode on Tuesday. But we were told that meeting here may not be possible due to his tight schedule,” she added. The CPI-M saw red in the BJP’s move to support the RMP as its Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan has already been arraigned by the CBI for the murder of Kadirur Manoj, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary, who was hacked to death on 1 September, 2014. However, CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balkrishnan said his party was not afraid of a CBI probe as none of its leaders had any role in killing Chandrasekharan in May 2012. “The BJP is trying to win the support of the RMP ahead of the upcoming Assembly election. Some of the RMP workers have already joined the BJP. As for Rema and the RMP, they have already become anti-Marxist. So there will be no surprise if they join hands with the BJP-RSS,” he said adding that the CPI-M would fight the Chandrasekharan murder case legally and politically. A former Democratic Youth Front of India (DYFI) leader, Chandrasekaran was hacked to death on 4 May, 2012. After parting ways with the CPI-M in 2009 over certain local issues in the party, he had floated the RMP, which became a formidable force in the Vadakara Taluk in Kozhikode district of Kerala. The CPI-M suffered setbacks in the panchayat and Lok Sabha elections soon after. As Chandrasekharan was killed after the unexpected defeat of CPI-M sitting MP, P Sathidevi  from the Vadakara constituency — believed to be a formidable fortress for the party, Rema and her friends had raised suspicions about the role of Sathidevi’s brother P Jayarajan and then party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in planning the murder.