Two rebel leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and their supporters were welcomed to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) at a function in Panur here on Tuesday.
CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, in his inaugural address at the function at the Panur High School grounds, said O.K. Vasu and A. Ashokan and their supporters who had left the BJP would henceforth be part of the CPI(M) as they had expressed their willingness to cooperate with the party.
Mr. Vasu and Mr. Ashokan, former district president and district secretary respectively of the BJP, and their supporters were garlanded by CPI(M) district secretary P. Jayarajan and other party functionaries at the function to the cheer of a large number of party workers who turned up to witness erstwhile political foes join the CPI(M) camp.
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Mr. Jayarajan hugged Mr. Vasu and Mr. Ashokan while receiving them on the dais.
Mr. Vijayan said the former BJP leaders and their supporters joined the CPI(M) camp after leaving the party and abandoning its ideology.
“Right-wing” political parties and some “pseudo-Leftists” had been spreading the story that the CPI(M) was in a hurry to receive those expelled from the BJP, he alleged.
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The right-wing political opponents were worried because they were aware that what was happening in Kannur would have repercussions elsewhere in the State, Mr. Vijayan added.
He also said the decision of Mr. Vasu and Mr. Ashokan to leave the BJP was in protest against the anti-democratic way the BJP was functioning as the party was controlled by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The CPI(M) leader also said those who joined the CPI(M) did so without any precondition on any position within the party. They had willingly expressed their wish to be with the CPI(M), he said adding that they would be treated as “our comrades”.
CPI(M) central committee member E.P. Jayarajan, MLA, presided over the function. Party leaders M.V. Jayarajan and K.K. Shylaja were among those present at the function.