Free to rejoin party, CPI-M tells ousted members in Kannur

The CPI-M on Wednesday sought out to reach out to a section of its party members in Kannur who were booted out after protesting for changing the alignment of a national highway by-pass passing through the district, saying they were free to return.

CPI-M's Kannur district Secretary P. Jayarajan on Wednesday said that the alignment of the national highway passing through Taliparamba was fixed by the authorities and while the party does not approve of the protest against this, it was never of the opinion that these members were anti-party.

"But certain vested interests are behind these protests and such people are misleading the people. We also do not approve of the ongoing campaign in the social media, branding some of those who, by mistake, are part of the protest group as anti-party activists.

"So in the best interest, our role should be to bring back those who were led astray," he wrote on Facebook.

Jayarajan had called on the ousted party members and told them that they were free to return to the party.

For over a year, a group of people owing allegiance to the ruling CPI-M, have been protesting against the road project and they received a huge support from several quarters. In response, the CPI-M took a strong position against 11 of the protesters by ousting them.

The protests received national attention with the state BJP and Congress leadership coming to pledge their support.

--IANS

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