'Spoke to Prakash Javadekar last year', Kerala CPI(M) leader Jayarajan questions timing of row

Thiruvananthapuram, April 28 CPI(M) central committee member and Left Democratic Front (LDF) convenor, E.P. Jayarajan said on Sunday that he had met BJP leader Prakash Javadekar for five minutes last year and that some people deliberately raked it up during the election period.

The senior CPI(M) leader said that the meeting with Prakash Javadekar took place casually a year ago -- to be precise on March 5, 2023, "but the subject has been maliciously raked up now for vested political motives targeting him".

Speaking to media persons here, Jayarajan, who is facing flak from the CPI(M) and CPI, has categorically denied any political overtures in the meeting.

The CPI(M) leader, who was the industries minister earlier, said that Javadekar had reached his son’s flat accidentally and he (Jayarajan) was surprised at the visit. He said that the incident took place in 2023 and it was during the birthday celebration of his grandson at his son’s flat in Thiruvananthapuram.

Jayarajan said that bringing out in the open his one-year-old casual meeting with the BJP leader now was a planned conspiracy.

It may be recalled that on Lok Sabha polling day (April 26) in Kerala, the news of Jayarajan’s meeting with the BJP leader had surfaced and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan strongly came out against this.

CM Vijayan had said that Jayarajan had earlier also entered into such friendships which were not good.

A high-profile power broker from Kerala, T.G. Nandakumar had earlier said that he had accompanied Prakash Javadekar during the meeting with Jayarajan. This infuriated the Chief Minister who said that Jayarajan should be careful in entering into relationships with "such tainted individuals" without naming anyone.

Meanwhile, the CPI has come out against Jayarajan. The party state secretary, Benoy Viswam said that Jayarajan should not have met Javadekar. The CPI state committee has also called for the removal of Jayarajan from the post of Left Democratic Front (LDF) convenor.

The CPI(M) unit in Kerala is in an unprecedented situation and allegations of a senior leader of the stature of Jayarajan entering into confabulations with the BJP national leadership have put the party on the back foot.

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