At the height of the faction feud in the Kerala unit of the CPI(M) in 2006 a young party leader from Malabar in north Kerala tried to physically harm former chief minister VS Achuthanandan, says a book written by a former Marxist ideologue. In the just-released book Ekathipathikal Arhikunnathu (What Dictators Deserve) author Berlin Kunjananthan Nair, a member of the German Communist Party, says that during the 2006 assembly elections a young leader tried to trip VS and trample over him along with others when he was on his way to the dais to address an election rally in Payyanur in north Kerala.

It was the timely intervention of VS’s aides KM Shajahan and Suresh that saved the Marxist veteran, the book says. Much to the embarrassment of the party, the book also says the man who tried to harm the Marxist veteran was rewarded later. He is now a state committee member of the party and MLA.

“It was a ploy to trip him. Once he fell they were planning to trample over him in the guise of a stampede. Once his secretaries realised their ploy, they intervened effectively and guided VS to safety,” Nair told HT. He said he had written about this to then Kannur district secretary MV Govindan and state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Achuthanandan’s arch rival.

Confirming there was such a plot, Shajahan said, “I wrote about this to party general secretary Prakash Karat and others but they ignored it.”