Pinarayi 'intimidating’ former party workers, accuses Keralam Minister C.P. John

C.P. John, the Transport Minister and Communist Marxist Party (CMP) general secretary, cautioned Pinarayi Vijayan, the Leader of the Opposition and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Polit Bureau member, against intimidating former party workers who had won elections after defecting from the CPI(M) over ideological and organizational disputes.

Speaking in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday (August 31, 2026), Mr. John emphasized that if Mr. Vijayan's speeches in Payyannur and Taliparamba are meant to intimidate former party members as well as workers who supported them, such actions will not succeed. He also accused Mr. Vijayan of attempting to conceal his isolation within the party and to portray himself as the real representative of the party.

Mr. John reported that within the CPI(M), strong measures are being taken against Mr. Vijayan, with demands being raised at the branch and state levels for him to relinquish the position of Leader of the Opposition and for M.V. Govindan to vacate the State secretary role. While neither state nor prominent leaders from Kannur attended Mr. Vijayan's speeches, Mr. John pointed out that Mr. Vijayan's assertion that the people, not the party, should be corrected suggests an effort to deter anyone from correcting the party's course.

He also noted the Communist Party of India (CPI)'s push for the Deputy Leader of the Opposition position as part of a strategy to undermine Mr. Vijayan. According to Mr. John, this strategy involves the opposition faction in the CPI(M) making the CPI demand a position it never held and portraying Mr. Vijayan as the one challenging it.

The United Democratic Front and the democratically-minded individuals in Kerala will not remain passive if the Leader of the Opposition threatens those democratically elected, he concluded.