MALAPPURAM: Seeking to take the wind out of the ‘captain’s’ sail, CPM-backed independent MLA P V Anvar subjected Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to the worst personal attack in recent times, linking him to gold smuggling and BJP’s election victory in Thrissur. Alleging that Pinarayi is in the clutches of a coterie, he quipped, “The captain is already handicapped.”
Holding the CPM workers close to his chest and singling out Pinarayi, Anvar said the issues faced by the ordinary party workers in Kerala have never been the concern of the party bosses. Throughout the two-hour-long press conference at Nilambur, Anvar was careful to pose himself as the champion of the party cadre and ordinary people in the state, who according to him, were mercilessly abandoned by Pinarayi to protect a group of people personally close to him.
Anvar reiterated that he has been airing the sentiments of the party workers and hundreds of the relatives of the martyrs. Insinuating that Pinarayi might have asked ADGP Ajithkumar to disrupt Thrissur Pooram to benefit the BJP, Anvar asked the media to find out the truth behind the incident. He alleged that the vested interests in the party “totally surrendered before the RSS and the BJP.”
It was the image of the chief minister that helped the LDF return to power in the last assembly elections, but the image has suffered a huge fall since, Anvar said and even alleged that the illegal gold seizures made by the Malappuram police had the blessings of Pinarayi.
He alleged no one, including senior CPM leaders, have access to the CM. “Does the chief minister think that only Riyas (minister for public works and Pinarayi’s son-in-law) is needed for the party?” He said even state secretary M V Govindan has no say in the party, which is completely controlled by Pinarayi. Taking a dig at the CM and his political secretary P Sasi, Anvar said Pinarayi is the only person who thinks that Sasi is a blemishless character. A coterie including Sasi and Ajith Kumar is controlling the chief minister, he alleged.
Anvar said many party workers have conveyed to him their ire over the state of affairs in the CPM. A CPM worker from Kannur messaged him to express his anger over the way the body of former state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was treated. The body was brought directly to Kannur without giving a chance to party workers in other districts to pay homage because Pinarayi had to go on a foreign trip.
Anvar said the party workers didn’t get justice from the police that are controlled by the RSS. There was an attempt to sabotage the investigation into the burning of the ashram of Swami Sandeepananda Giri and there were attempts to frame the CPM workers in the case related to the attack on AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, he alleged.
Anvar challenged the CM to institute a probe into the cases related to seizure of gold in Malappuram district. He said Pinarayi was only parroting what the ADGP has handed over to him. “There was an attempt to cast the shadow of suspicion on me in those cases,” he said, adding that Pinarayi cheated him on the issue by creating an impression that a genuine probe was going on in the case.
Anvar clarified that he is not going to resign as MLA and said he will not attend the LDF parliamentary meetings. “The IUML and the Congress may not accept me and I cannot join the BJP,” he said. Anvar said he will hold a public meeting in Nilambur on September 29 to announce his future plans.
Anvar softened the attitude towards the Congress saying that he hails from a family that always kept good relationship with the Nehru family.