Another long time Kerala CPI(M) leader exits party; likely to join BJP

Thiruvananthapuram: Days after a CPI(M) leader from Alappuzha quit the party and joined the BJP amidst reports of factional feud in its conferences, another party leader on Tuesday appears to have taken the same path.

As Madhu Mullassery announced his exit from the party in the morning, the CPI(M) expelled him from its primary membership.

The CPI(M) said that he was being removed as he acted in contravention of party principles and defamed it in the public sphere.

Mullassery, a former area secretary of the CPI(M) in Mangalapuram here and a party member for 42 years, blamed Left MLA and district committee secretary V Joy for his exit.

"I have decided to leave a party for which I have worked for 42 years as it is difficult to work alongside the district secretary V Joy," he said.

Mullassery told a TV channel that the state leadership of both the Congress and the BJP had contacted him and he would announce at 11 am which party he had decided to join.

BJP's Thiruvananthapuram district president V V Rajesh and other party leaders met the former CPI(M) leader at his residence in the morning.

Mullassery has claimed that he was mistreated by Joy, who allegedly only cares for his own interests and positions within the party and accused him of creating divisiveness in the CPI(M) at the district level.

On November 30, Bipin C Babu, member of CPI(M) Alappuzha area committee and member of district panchayat representing Krishnapuram division, joined the BJP.

Bipin, after joining the BJP, had alleged that CPI(M) had lost its secular character.

"A few communal forces are leading the party now and it has become an outfit of a particular section," he had said.

The sidelining of senior CPI(M) leader G Sudhakaran has also drawn criticism within the party and the local and area conferences, with some places, such as Karunagappally in Kollam district, witnessing open protests, according to party sources.