THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Among the sea of people who came to pay their last respects to Kodiyeri Balakrishnan at Thalassery Town Hall, one person stood apart. Though he represented an ideology that is often seen as adversarial to the CPM, BJP national executive member PK Krishnadas was seated near the CPM stalwart’s body for hours. The BJP leader’s gesture indicated a warm relationship the two leaders from Thalassery shared, thanks to their year-long association in quelling violence in politically-volatile Kannur.
Speaking to TNIE after attending Kodiyeri’s funeral at Payyambalam, Krishnadas remembered that Kodiyeri’s interventions helped prevent clashes between the CPM and the BJP-RSS workers from spiralling out of control on numerous occasions. Even while maintaining rigidity in ideological and organisational matters, Kodiyeri’s affable nature and accessibility were what made him stand apart from other Communist leaders, Krishnadas said.
Though both leaders’ ancestral houses were situated barely a kilometre apart, they interacted with each other only after making their respective marks in the political sphere. “Though we knew each other earlier, our interactions began after I became the BJP general secretary in 2002,” Krishnadas said. The BJP leader said the interactions with Kodiyeri became more frequent during the latter’s stint as Home Minister from 2006-2011.
“At that time, I was the BJP state president. The series of clashes in Kannur had reached a boiling point, necessitating our frequent interventions to quell the violence,” he said. Since then, the two leaders have maintained a cordial relationship. Krishnadas visited Kodiyeri twice at his house in Thiruvananthapuram after he returned from the US after treatment. He said it would be tough to find a replacement for a leader like Kodiyeri who was affable even to political adversaries.