The ruling front reportedly viewed the high-profile Income Tax raid and Enforcement Directorate (ED) notice against the promoters of an Ayurveda resort “related” to Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener E. P.Jayarajan in Kannur as a recap of the recriminatory Opposition crusade it faced and defeated in the 2021 Assembly election campaign.
It purportedly perceived the contours of the strident Congress and BJP campaign that rocked the previous Pinarayi Vijayan government in the recent developments involving Central agencies and former and serving ruling front apparatchiks.
The LDF had then accused the Opposition of “vainly using cherry-picked information from court filings and ED’s selective leaks to the media” to denigrate the previous government with an eye on the 2021 Assembly polls.
The alliance draws strength from defeating the “hostile Opposition propaganda” at the hustings.
The LDF senses that a similar Opposition strategy was shaping up again ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Several chips seem to have fallen in place. For one, the ED recently arrested M. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, on a three-year-old LIFE Mission-related money laundering charges.
The agency has “suddenly” notified Mr. Vijayan’s additional private secretary, C.M. Raveendran, to appear before it for questioning in the same case, allegedly on the backburner since 2020.
Mr. Sivasankar’s co-accused, Swapna Suresh, briefly employed by an alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) front organisation, has returned to bait the government.
Leaks of her purported WhatsApp chats with high-ranking CMO officials have deluged the media.
The Congress recently raised Swapna’s allegations in the Assembly, leading to an Opposition-ruling front stand-off.
It also made an issue of the ED notice to Mr. Raveendran to put the government on defence.
As in the past, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has seized on Swapna’s averments to assail the government.
The LDF seemed inclined to close ranks against the brewing “defamatory” campaign.
Nevertheless, it appeared not to have helped Mr. Jayarajan that the media has made much of his “absence” from Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M. V. Govindan’s high-profile “Janakeeya Prathirodha Yatra”.
The situation has compelled Mr. Govindan to fend off “discomfiting” media questions about Mr. Jayarajan’s “failure to turn up”, thus reportedly annoying some in the LDF who feel that the “non-issue” has diverted attention from the CPI(M)‘s marquee campaign against the Central government.
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