As whispers of nepotism turns into a political tempest, the Left is forced to defend what it once projected as untouchable integrity.
Published Oct 19, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 19, 2025 | 9:00 AM
Veena Vijayan with her father Pinarayi Vijayan, husband Mohammed Riyas and mother Kamala Vijayan. Photo: Facebook.
Synopsis: For nine years, since taking office in 2016, Vijayan has been remaining steely, unyielding, and often unchallenged within his party. But as his second term enters its twilight years, the 80-year-old CPI(M) stalwart finds himself encircled by controversies that refuse to fade.
As the Left eyes a historic third term, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stands tall as its iron-willed captain — a man of steely discipline and unshakable ideological resolve.
Yet, the carefully curated image of invincibility is showing cracks — not from policy failures or Opposition attacks, but from within his own household.
At the centre of this political maelstrom stand his two children: daughter T Veena Vijayan, a tech entrepreneur, and son Vivek Kiran Vijayan, a Dubai-based professional.
As whispers of nepotism turns into a political tempest, the Left is forced to defend what it once projected as untouchable integrity. Is this the handiwork of a political vendetta orchestrated by a hostile BJP-led central government, or is there genuinely something fishy?
For nine years, since taking office in 2016, Vijayan has been remaining steely, unyielding, and often unchallenged within his party. But as his second term enters its twilight years, the 80-year-old CPI(M) stalwart finds himself encircled by controversies that refuse to fade.
The controversy has its roots in the early 2000s, when Vijayan, then CPI(M) state secretary, faced accusations of hypocrisy for enrolling his daughter Veena in a self-financing engineering college in Tamil Nadu.
For a party that had aggressively opposed the mushrooming of private, capitation-fee-driven colleges in Kerala — calling them exploitative — this move handed the Opposition early ammunition. The Congress was quick to brand it “elitist red privilege,” a theme that would echo through the years.
After a corporate stint with Oracle, Veena climbed the corporate ladder as CEO of RP Techsoft International, a firm linked to UAE-based billionaire Ravi Pillai.
In 2014, she founded Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd, a Bengaluru-based IT company with a modest capital of ₹1 lakh. Her choice to build the company outside Kerala, even as her father’s government championed local IT parks, didn’t go unnoticed.
To the CPI(M), it was entrepreneurial freedom. To the Opposition, it was a textbook case of “do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do.”
Veena’s name first stormed into headlines during the June 2020 gold smuggling case and the Sprinklr data contract controversy.
Accused by prime accused Swapna Suresh of being the “mastermind” behind a controversial no-bid deal, Exalogic briefly went offline, scrubbing mentions of its links with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Though Vijayan called the allegations “blatant lies” and no charges were filed, the episode planted a seed of public doubt. Exalogic’s eventual dormancy in 2022 deepened the intrigue.
The real turning point came in August 2023, when the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board ruled that Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) had paid Veena and Exalogic a total of ₹1.72 crore between 2017 and 2020 without any services rendered. CMRL MD admitted no work was done.
Soon, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) launched a probe, followed by an ED case. By April 2025, Veena was named in the SFIO chargesheet under Section 447 of the Companies Act (fraud).
The Opposition called it “payoff for influence.” Vijayan dismissed it as a “witch-hunt.”
But politically, the damage was done. Even allies like the CPI expressed unease, and the UDF seized on the issue, portraying Veena as a symbol of “cronyism in red robes.”
As the storm around Exalogic gathered force, a seemingly routine port visit added fuel to the fire.
On 29 April 2025, Vijayan took his wife, his daughter Veena, and grandson to an official review of the Vizhinjam International Seaport. Congress’s Ramesh Chennithala pounced, calling it “not a family picnic.”
The optics — amid ongoing probes — were politically disastrous.
UDF mocked the “emperor’s tour,” and even some within CPI(M) privately admitted the “timing couldn’t have been worse.”
Unlike his sister, Vivek Kiran Vijayan had remained out of the limelight. Based in Dubai, he was portrayed by his father as someone leading a quiet “work-home” life.
That narrative cracked in October 2025, when reports surfaced that the Enforcement Directorate had issued a 2023 summons to Vivek in the Life Mission housing project case — a probe tied to alleged kickbacks worth ₹4.4 crore in a UAE-funded flood rehabilitation project.
The ED notice, sent to Cliff House, was never publicly acknowledged. Congress accused Vijayan of “burying the story,” alleging an “unholy CPM-BJP nexus.”
Separately, Vivek’s name resurfaced in the SNC-Lavalin case, the same scandal that dogged Vijayan in the 1990s.
The ED linked financial records to the pending money-laundering probe. No appearance was made. The case remains “active” on ED’s portal.
The Veena-CMRL saga escalated legally in mid-2025 when the Kerala High Court directed both Vijayan and Veena to respond to a PIL seeking a CBI probe. Veena’s counter-argument was that parallel investigations are barred since the SFIO case is already active.
The UDF hailed the development as “an accountability moment,” while CPI(M) framed it as a “targeted attack by the Centre.”
For Vijayan, the political stakes are immense. The party’s long-cherished image of ideological purity is colliding head-on with perceptions of nepotism and privilege.
In the eye of a political storm, Vijayan has repeatedly stood by his family, defending his children and extended family against a series of allegations that have attracted national attention.
From alleged financial irregularities involving his daughter Veena to money-laundering claims against his son Vivek, and nepotism charges targeting his son-in-law and PWD-Tourism Minister PA Mohammed Riyas, Vijayan has framed the controversies as politically motivated attacks aimed at tarnishing both his family’s and his own reputation.
Veena has been at the center of scrutiny since 2016 due to her IT firm, Exalogic Solutions Private Limited. Vijayan has consistently defended Veena, dismissing the allegations as a politically driven campaign.
On 9 April 2025, he told reporters: “I know you want my blood, but you will not get it easily.”
He repeatedly characterised the SFIO case against her as politically motivated, emphasizing that no wrongdoing had been proven. Veena, too, has denied wrongdoing, asserting that her father had no role in Exalogic.
In June 2025, she filed a counter-affidavit refuting claims that her firm was a “benami company,” a position backed by Vijayan, who rejected calls for a CBI probe, calling the PIL politically motivated.
Vivek, the chief minister’s son, faced allegations linked to a 2023 ED probe into the Life Mission housing project scam.
Opposition parties alleged a political shield protected him from scrutiny. Vijayan, however, has repeatedly denied these claims, describing them as fabricated.
On 13 October, Vijayan told reporters: “Neither I nor my son got ED summons.”
He described media reports as false, emphasising Vivek’s simple, disciplined lifestyle and asserting that Opposition attempts to target him were after failed efforts to malign Veena.
He reiterated, “I am proud of my children; my son lives by working decently. No one can tarnish us.”
Underscoring his unflinching defense, he said, “Both of my children have lived by the same principles I uphold.”
Veena’s husband and Vijayan’s son-in-law, Riyas, has also faced scrutiny since joining the cabinet in 2021.
Critics have accused him of benefiting from “Communist dynasty politics,” failing to disclose assets in 2023, and alleged mishandling related to a 2023 boat tragedy in Tanur.
Vijayan’s defense of Riyas has been measured, focusing on merit and procedural correctness.
He has repeatedly rejected broad accusations of nepotism, emphasising transparency in his political career and framing media criticism as routine targeting of Communist leaders.
For the UDF, the narrative has been ready-made.
Invoking Shakespeare’s Hamlet, leaders quip: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
Their accusation: the Vijayan household embodies a toxic brew of cronyism, where family ties grease business wheels and shield the powerful from accountability.
CPI(M) counters with equal ferocity, calling it a “political witch-hunt” by the BJP, amplified by a pliant Opposition and media ecosystem.
With elections around the corner, the Vijayan household is no longer just a family story. It will now faces the glare of privilege, allegations, and public scrutiny like never before. Those who look for even the slightest opportunity of scoring political brownie points will say that in the political battlefield everything is fair.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
