CPI-M waits with bated breath, as all eyes on fate of Bineesh Kodiyeri

Thiruvananthapuram

The CPI-M in Kerala is passing through one of its worst ever phases, as the fate of Bineesh Kodiyeri -- the son of the party's state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan -- will be known in far away Bengaluru after his custody period with the Enforcement Directorate ends on Wednesday.

Bineesh, after being summoned for questioning in Bengaluru by the ED, was arrested on October 29 and is being questioned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Indications are that a lot many things have been unearthed, which do not augur well for Bineesh and in turn could put the CPI-M in poor light.

The CPI-M is waiting with bated breath, as speculation is rife that Bineesh might be picked up by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), as his close friend and business aide  Anoop Mohammed has been in its custody and is housed in a jail in Bengaluru for well over a month now.

Earlier this week, the local body polls were announced to take place in three phases -- on December 8, 10 and 14.

All eyes are now on the NCB, as twice it came to pick him, but since the ED wanted more time, the agency backed out.

If the NCB is given Bineesh's custody on Wednesday, it could well be the biggest setback for the CPI-M, which will have to face a huge backlash as the opposition Congress and the BJP will be using this as their biggest campaign point.

The convenor of the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front, A. Vijayaraghavan, has already started to counter all the charges that the Pinarayi Vijayan government is facing from an aggressive opposition comprising the Congress and the BJP, by pointing out that already one opposition legislator, M.C. Kamaruddin, of the Indian Union Muslim League is in judicial custody after the company that he headed went broke and left hundreds of investors in the lurch.

"K.M. Shaji, Kamaruddin's party colleague, is another one who is being questioned by the ED. Another of their legislator colleague and former state minister, V.K. Ebrahim Kunju, is also in the dock.

"Then you have the bar scam, in which a businessman has said that the Leader of Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala, when he was the state Congress president, and two former Congress ministers, K. Babu and V.S. Sivakumar, were all paid money. You also have the solar scam... So you just wait and see, there will be quite a few present day opposition legislators who will be in jail soon," said Vijayaraghavan.

Also trying to put a straight face was Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who claimed that the media was biased against the Vijayan government and they do not see any good which the government has done.

"The media appears to be engaged in only criticising the present state government, which has done so many things for the common man, but they ignore all the corruption  news of the opposition and blow out of proportion any issues of the present state government," said Balakrishnan.