Senior Communist Party of India (CPI) leader P Ramachandran Nair yesterday quit the party following a cash-for-seat scam.
Nair along with CPI legislative party leader C Divakaran and its district secretary V Sasi was demoted to a lower committee soon after the April-May Lok Sabha elections following allegations that money changed hands while fielding independent candidate Bennet Abraham for parliamentary elections early this year.
“If anybody had taken money, it’s party secretary Pannyan Raveendran. He was also censured by the party (over the scam),” said Nair, who unsuccessfully contested against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in 2009.
Sasi later joined the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), an ally of the ruling Congress party, while Divakaran remains the party’s floor leader in the state assembly.
“I am leaving the party after being with it for the past 48 years. I am pained to see that the party has now been hijacked by a group led by K E Ismail (former state revenue minister). The party has fallen from very lofty heights when stalwarts led it and now it has been reduced to just a shadow of what it was,” Nair said while addressing reporters here.
“The decision to field Abraham was taken by state secretariat of the party despite objections being raised by many leaders. It was totally an injustice to put the blame on just the three of us for this,” said Nair.
He, however, said he cannot believe that the seat was given to Abraham for money.
“I am the third accused in the case filed with the Lok Ayukta. I am now going to file a petition before it demanding that all the details of the minutes of the meeting at which decision to field Abraham was taken be produced before the court,” said Nair.
It was early this week that the Lok Ayukta ruled that the probe into the ‘payment for Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat’ complaint against the CPI can go forward and even the party secretary Ravindran can be called for questioning.
“It’s surprising to hear that Ravindran has decided to approach the Kerala High Court seeking a stay on the Lok Ayukta directive. Is it not important that the truth over the allocation of seat to Abraham comes out,” asked Nair.
The issue also rocked the assembly when Chief Minister Oommen Chandy called the CPI a party that sells parliament seats. He later apologised for his remarks.