'CPI(M) invited us and then deceived us by denying seats,' says JSS leader Gowri

Chertala: Slamming the CPI(M), which snubbed her by denying seats to her party to contest in the 16 May assembly polls, JSS leader K R Gowri alleged on Wednesday that she had been “deceived” by the Marxist party. “CPI(M) had invited us and then deceived us by denying seats. They have cheated us,” the 97-year-old communist leader told reporters after a meeting of JSS state committee in Kolkata.

Gowri further said, “It is like waking up a sleeping person and telling him that there was no food.” JSS had sought four seats — Aroor, Chertala, Karunagapally and Kayamkulam — from the LDF, which was turned down by the left front. Meanwhile, welcoming the BJP’s call to join the NDA bandwagon, she said a decision on this would be taken at the next meeting of the JSS. A N Rajan Babu, a leader of breakaway faction of JSS, had recently joined the NDA. Gowri had been invited by the Marxist party to join the CPI(M) last year after state secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, took over the reins of the party in the state. Though she had agreed at first, certain issues relating to party assets had cropped up within her party, Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy (JSS) after which the merger decision was given up. Gowri, a prominent figure in the Communist movement in Kerala, had been associated with CPI(M)-led LDF after severing her ties with UDF following differences with its leadership. She was a minister in the first Communist government in Kerala headed by E M S Namboodiripad in 1957 and had also served as minister in the Communist governments in Kerala in 1967, 1980, and 1987. She was also a Minister in the UDF government from 2001 to 2006.