THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Inflicting heavy damage to the already beleaguered Communist Party of India(CPI) following the payment seat controversy, P Ramchandran Nair, former Thiruvananthapuram district secretary and state executive member, resigned from the party on Saturday.
“I welcome the Lokayukta decision to probe the charges of accepting money to field Bennet Abraham in the Lok Sabha elections,” he told reporters here.
Coming down heavily on the party leadership, he said it was certain that CPI leaders are behind the payment seat controversy. But instead of proving the charges wrong, CPI state secretary Pannian Ravindran’s statement that the party would move the High Court to stay proceedings in the Lokayukta court was shameful, he said.
Ramachandran pointed out that ‘Janayugom’, the party mouthpiece, had come out with an article by assistant secretary Prakash Babu that there was no corruption in allotting seat to Bennet and it was for committing organisational lapses that disciplinary action was initiated against a few leaders, including Nair.
While demanding the Lokayukta to register a case against Pannian and state secretariat members for seconding Bennet’s candidature, Ramachandran said the party appointed inquiry commission’s report and the statements by 88 party leaders and cadre who had deposed before the commission should be handed over to the Lokayukta.
He also criticised the CPI for not considering his complaint challenging the disciplinary action against him.
The state secretariat on March 10 had decided to field Bennet from Thiruvananthapuram. The following day Pannian and K E Ismail had put pressure on the state executive to accept the secretariat decision using their veto despite differences by 18 of the 31-member secretariat.
After this meeting the state council and national executive adopted the decision and general secretary P Sudhakar Reddy announced the candidature. He pointed out that it was at Pannian’s insistence that the district executive granted membership to Bennet.