A meeting between CPM leader E.P. Jayarajan and the BJP’s Kerala in-charge Prakash Javadekar has put the ruling Left Democratic Front in a spot, with the Congress-led Opposition accusing the two parties of having a secret electoral understanding in the state.

The Left was left scrambling for an explanation on polling day when Jayarajan admitted that he had met Javadekar as claimed by the BJP’s Alappuzha Lok Sabha candidate Shobha Surendran.

Jayarajan said Javadekar had unexpectedly walked into his son’s flat in Thiruvananthapuram some months ago. “It was a personal meeting, Javadekar just walked in. Can you ask someone to leave?” Jayarajan told reporters after casting his vote on Friday.

To make matters worse, Jayarajan said T.P. Nandakumar, an infamous power broker, had brought Javadekar to the flat. However, he insisted they did not talk politics.

Jayarajan also justified his decision not to inform the party about the meeting. “My political stand remains unchanged no matter who I meet. There is no need to inform the party about every visitor I get,” he said.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, however, cautioned Jayarajan to stay away from people such as Nandakumar although he felt there was nothing wrong in meeting a leader from a rival party. “There is nothing wrong in meeting Javadekar. I have also met him, but told him that the BJP won’t win anything from here. Nandakumar is someone who tries to make money from anything. Jayarajan should have been more careful,” Vijayan said.

A good section of CPM leaders are, however, said to be unhappy with Jayarajan’s statement, that too on the polling day.

T.M. Thomas Isaac, former state finance minister and the CPM candidate from Pathanamthitta, couldn’t hide his displeasure. “The chief minister has already expressed his opinion. Rest of it will be addressed at the party level,” he told a channel on Saturday, apparently alluding to the state secretariat meeting scheduled for Monday.

The Jayarajan-Javadekar meeting has come in handy for the Congress, which has accused the Left of following a soft-Hindutva approach.

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan of the Congress questioned if the Jayarajan-Javadekar meeting was to settle cases against Vijayan and his daughter Veena.

“Did Jayarajan talk to Javadekar about settling the SNC Lavalin and payoff cases? That is the reason why Pinarayi (Vijayan) is justifying the meeting,” he told reporters on Saturday, adding that the cases were leveraged to make “the CPM fall in line for
an electoral deal”.

Kerala High Court had in 2017 acquitted Vijayan of charges of criminal conspiracy in awarding a contract to modernise a few hydroelectric projects to Canadian company SNC-Lavalin when he was the power minister between 1996 and 1998. An appeal before the Supreme Court has been adjourned 37 times, leading to allegations that the CBI was not keen on following up the case.

The reference to Veena was about an alleged payoff amounting to ₹1.72 crore by Cochin Minerals and Rutile to her now-defunct Bengaluru-based tech firm Exalogic Solutions without providing any service.

AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said Jayarajan would have never met Javadekar without Vijayan’s approval. “The truth is they have an unholy alliance with the BJP. But they are protecting the main culprit (Vijayan) when they got
exposed.”