KANNUR: Amid the controversy over the alleged links of CPM’s cyber warriors with quotation and smuggling gangs, the name of popular Facebook page ‘PJ Army’ has been changed to ‘Red Army’. The name and design of the FB page were changed reportedly following pressure from the CPM district leadership.
The ‘PJ Army’ page was created on May 10, 2019, in connection with the campaigning of senior CPM leader P Jayarajan, who contested from Vadakara constituency in the Lok Sabha elections. The page was initially named ‘Vote for PJ’. Later, P Jayarajan’s followers changed it to ‘PJ Army’. It is alleged that the page is operated under the leadership of Akash Thillankeri and Arjun Ayanki.
The name of the FB page was not changed even during the recent assembly elections, though the party had taken a strong stand against the group. Though they had replaced the cover photo of P Jayarajan with that of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the name was retained.
When the campaign to field P Jayarajan in the assembly election got intense, triggering voices of dissent in several places in the district, Jayarajan himself stepped in to put curbs on the group’s activities. At one stage, Jayarajan even said he would be forced to take legal action against those who use his name for anti-party activities. Though the name of the FB page has been changed, the old photos and posts praising P Jayarajan have not been removed from the page.