Trouble looms over Sudhakaran after CPI-M probe committee submits report

Thiruvananthapuram: Trouble looms large over two-time former state Minister and veteran CPI-M leader G. Sudhakaran after a party probe committee against him submitted its report.

The probe committee looked into a complaint that he did not rise to the occasion in the April 6 Assembly election campaign for the party candidate who had replaced him at his home turf-Ambalapuzha Assembly constituency.

It was last month that the state committee of the CPI-M commissioned top party veterans Elamaram Kareem, Rajya Sabha MP and his party colleague K.J. Thomas to see if there was any laxity on the part of Sudhakaran.

The two later met with a wide spectrum of leaders and party workers and according to sources in the know of things, they have found out that the complaint against Sudhakaran by H. Salam who won the seat, had merit in it.

Salam had raised the negative attitude of Sudhakaran ever since the news surfaced that the veteran will not be fielded as he had completed two terms as a legislator.

The report is now ready and the state secretariat will look into it, and the only saving grace is the committee has not said anything on the need for a disciplinary action against Sudhakaran, sources say.

Sudhakaran, known for his probity in public life and also for his razor sharp tongue when the news then came that he is not going to get his sitting seat, was caught on the wrong foot and he went hammer and tongs against what he claims to be a section in the party which celebrated, hearing the news that he was not given a seat.

For over a decade now, Sudhakaran was the last word in the district and in that process he antagonised a few senior leaders like his former Ministerial colleague Thomas Issac, present State Fisheries Minister Saji Cherian and Alappuzha CPI-M Lok Sabha member A.M. Ariff, who it appears have now joined together.

At the Alappuzha district committee meeting, Sudhakaran came under fire as a majority of the committee welcomed the probe, while Sudhakaran, who was present, remained tightlipped.

Sudhakaran handled the State Public Works Department portfolio during Pinarayi Vijayan's first term (2016-21) and the Cooperation portfolio in the V.S. Achuthanandan government (2006-11) and all along he was a close confidant of Achuthanandan.

But at a crucial time when the tiff between Achuthanandan and Vijayan took a turn for the worse, Sudhakaran switched his loyalties and soon became a loyal Vijayan supporter, but of late there appears to be some rift between them.

It remains to be seen if the axe of discipline will be wielded against Sudhakaran as in a similar complaint and a similar probe conducted against V.K. Madhu, a top Thiruvananthapuram district CPI-M leader was punished by booting him out from a higher committee to a lower committee.