Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader and Alappuzha district panchayat former vice-president Bipin C. Babu quit the party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday.
Mr. Babu, who represents the Krishapuram division in the district panchayat, received the BJP membership from national general secretary Tarun Chugh in a function held in Thiruvananthapuram.
Speaking to mediapersons, Mr. Babu said the CPI(M) had lost its secular character. He said the party was being led by communal forces. “The developmental initiatives by the Union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi attracted me to the BJP,” he added. Mr. Babu said that he would soon resign from the district panchayat.
BJP State president K. Surendran said that more CPI (M) dissidents would soon join the saffron party. He alleged that the presence of mafia elements and a faction of the Popular Front of India (PFI) within the CPI(M) was resulting in the downfall of the communist party. “Leaders like G. Sudhakaran are speaking out against this, posing a significant challenge to the CPI(M),” he said.
Suspended
Last year, the CPI(M) had suspended Mr. Babu from the party for six months. The party initiated disciplinary action against him based on a complaint filed by his wife to the CPI(M) leadership accusing him of domestic violence, extramarital affairs and black magic. When suspended, he was a CPI(M) Kayamkulam area committee member. Following the suspension period, the party re-inducted him to the branch committee.
Earlier this year, Mr. Babu revealed that the murder of INTUC leader Kaleekkal Sathyan in 2001 at Kareelakungara was premeditated and carried out by the CPI(M). He disclosed it in a letter sent to CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan.
Sathyan was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist before joining the Congress and becoming an INTUC leader. Mr. Babu was an accused in the Sathyan murder case. A court acquitted him and other accused in the case in 2006. In the letter, Mr. Babu noted that he was falsely implicated in the case at the age of 19 and spent 65 days in prison.
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