Pinarayi Vijayan man targets VS Achuthanandan aides

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Bogged down by factional feud, TPC murder, rout at the Neyyattinkara by-election, sex charges against leaders and public utterances by the party top brass, the CPM in Kerala landed itself into further trouble when one of its leaders accused some of his top comrades of graft.

Former Ernakulam district party secretary Gopi Kottamurikkal accused party’s former minister S. Sarma and former MP K. Chandran Pillai of being a party to illegal filling of 150 acres of land at Nedumbassery, near the Kochi airport, for a private firm. The revelations were made to a television channel.

The bombshell comes on the eve of the state leadership meeting from Sunday to discuss a host of issues plaguing the party, in the presence of top central party leaders.

Gopi had been recently divested of all party posts and made an ordinary member in the lowest party unit - branch committee,following allegations of extra-marital relations with a woman lawyer.

He has now accused CPM central committee member MC Josephine of forcefully extracting statements from the lawyer.

Gopi, as party district secretary, had crossed over to the Pinarayi faction, embarrassing the VS faction which has a hold on the district committee.

According to Gopi, the move to defame him was at the instance of Sarma and Pillai, VS aides, who were behind the setting up of hidden cameras in the party office.

Gopi had opposed the land-filling deal near the airport for financial gains at a time when VS Achuthanandan was leading a campaign against land-filling.

When there was a party inquiry against him into the sex scandal, he had raised the matter and even told the committee to collect data from the laptop of Pillai and also question two personal staff of Sarma who was then a minister.

Incidentally, the public outburst comes close on the heels of the party cautioning leaders against controversial public statements.

Party insiders say that demoralized by the action, Gopi has made a last ditch effort to save his face after remaining mum for more than a year.

However, both Pillai and Sarma, while dismissing the charges, said they would take up the matter at the party forum.