BJP state vice-president Sobha Surendran claimed that Jayarajan met Prakash Javadekar with the intention of joining her party.
EP Jayarajan. (X)
LDF convener EP Jayarajan has filed a defamation suit against BJP state vice-president Sobha Surendran at the Judicial Magistrate Court in Kannur.
The senior CPI(M) leader from Kerala accused Sobha of levelling baseless allegations against him to tarnish his image.
Her allegation that Jayarajan had approached her with self-styled power broker TG Nandakumar, alias ‘Dallal’ Nandakumar, with a plan to join the BJP. The allegation forced the CPI(M) and Jayarajan on the backfoot even as Kerala went to polling booths on 26 April.
Sobha then claimed that Jayarajan changed his mind after receiving a call from an unknown person.
Nandakumar then said that Jayarajan had met Prakash Javadekar, the BJP leader in charge of Kerala.
With the allegation snowballing into a political controversy, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan publicly remarked that Jayarajan should have been “vigilant”, and that he had been careless in the past too.
Sobha Surendran.
Jayarajan did not deny meeting Javadekar, but said the meeting at his son’s flat at Akkulam in Thiruvananthapuram was non-political.
Jayarajan then said Javadekar had visited him unannounced. The CPI(M) state secretariat accepted his explanation.
The CPI(M) who gave a clean chit to Jayarajan, directed him to initiate legal action against Sobha. The party further threw its weight behind Jayarajan.
Related: Senior CPI(M) leader Jayarajan alleges conspiracy
Following the CPI(M) directive, Jayarajan complained to the state police chief against Sobha, Nandakumar and KPCC president K Sudhakaran.
KPCC president K Sudhakaran. (ksudhakaraninc/Facebook)
He accused Sobha of conspiring with Sudhakaran to create an unnecessary controversy to tarnish his image.
Jayarajan also blamed the media for publishing the report of the meeting.
“Is this media ethics? On what evidence did the media base this news? Moreover, the news, which emerged on the eve of the Lok Sabha election, was part of a planned move,” he alleged.
In a legal notice sent to Sobha, Nandakumar and Sudhakaran for making defamatory statements against him, Jayarajan demanded them to apologise through the media or pay a compensation of ₹2 crore.
Incidentally, the BJP did not play up Sobha’s allegation. Reports said the party leadership was miffed over her revelation.
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