At least two recent controversies seemed to put the CPI(M)'s political credentials as a pro-woman party to test in some measure.
An SFI woman leader hailing from a "party family" has accused the CPI(M) leadership of conspiring with her parents to force her to give up her child born out of wedlock for adoption.
An AISF Dalit woman leader in Mahatma Gandhi University has accused SFI activists of assaulting her, disparaging her caste and threatening rape.
The woman and the child’s father, now her husband, has accused the Child Welfare Council, Kerala State Women's Commission and the police of stonewalling their efforts to trace the child since 2019.
They alleged some "powerful persons" had falsified the child's birth certificate to conceal its true identity. The couple demanded a forensic DNA analysis to help prove the parentage if the State traced their "lost child."
The tale of a young mother's desperate attempt to learn the fate of her "lost child" seemed to have captured the public's imagination. It had generated compelling news content and resonated strongly in social media.
The Congress and the BJP have seized on the issue to turn the tables on the CPI(M). The CPI(M) had long sought to hold the moral high ground on the politically sensitive subject of gender equality.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the administration had conspired to deny a helpless mother her child. The CPI(M) had plated the second fiddle to the travesty of justice, and the Government owed the people an explanation for its abuse of power.
The UDF was likely to highlight the "ingrained" misogyny in the CPI(M) in the Assembly. It hoped to counter the CPI(M) campaign that the IUML was misogynistic after Muslim Students Federation (MSF) women activists raised a similar charge against the leadership and rebelled.
BJP president K. Surendran said the police should trace the child and prosecute those who facilitated the "illegal adoption."
Women and Child Welfare Minister Veena George said the Government was with the mother. The CPI(M) also struck a similar tack somewhat belatedly, and Ms. George said a departmental inquiry was underway.
