Independent MLA and veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader G. Sudhakaran, who wrested the Ambalapuzha seat from the ruling party in the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections, on Monday, 12 October 2026, declared that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had fallen into the wrong hands — invoking decades of shared political history to underscore his point.

The Core Charge

'When Vijayan was in the company of seasoned party colleagues, he did not have any issues,' Sudhakaran said in an exclusive interview, adding, 'When an issue surfaced between Achuthanandan and him, we stood with Vijayan.' The remark was a pointed reminder that veteran CPI-M colleagues had once been Vijayan's political backstop — and that this backing no longer exists.

Sudhakaran, now 79 and a five-time legislator, served as a minister in both the V.S. Achuthanandan government and the first Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet from 2016 to 2021. His break with the party began when he was denied a CPI-M ticket from Ambalapuzha in 2021.

A Falling Out and a Comeback

Relations between Sudhakaran and the CPI-M deteriorated sharply after the ticket denial. 'The party did not come to my side when I was badly attacked on social media, done with the support of a few leaders of the party in Alappuzha,' he said. In the 2026 Kerala Assembly polls, he contested as an independent with Congress support and secured a win in a constituency long regarded as a CPI-M fortress — a result that dealt a symbolic blow to the ruling establishment.

The FIR Backdrop

Sudhakaran's remarks came on the same day the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau registered an FIR in the CMRL-Exalogic case, naming Vijayan as the first accused and his daughter, T. Veena, as the second accused. When pressed for a comment on the case, Sudhakaran declined to elaborate. 'I do not want to make any further comment on the case,' he said. The coincidence of timing has, however, drawn attention to the increasingly fraught position of the outgoing Chief Minister.

On the New Chief Minister and the CPI-M's Contradictions

On incoming Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, Sudhakaran offered a measured assessment — acknowledging that Satheesan 'knew his job and was not corrupt', while cautioning that most Cabinet members were newcomers. 'One will have to wait,' he said. He reserved sharper words for Vijayan's reported suggestion that Sudhakaran had 'fallen into the hands of the Congress.' Pointing to CPI-M general secretary M.A. Baby speaking at an event in Delhi under a Congress flag, Sudhakaran asked rhetorically, 'What has Vijayan got to say on it?' He also noted that Baby was his junior in the party hierarchy — 'it was I who supported him in the party' — underscoring what he sees as the selective application of party loyalty.

What It Signals

The remarks from Sudhakaran illustrate a broader fracture within Kerala's left ecosystem, where long-serving leaders who built the CPI-M's grassroots presence increasingly feel sidelined by a narrower inner circle around Vijayan. With the CMRL-Exalogic FIR adding legal jeopardy to political vulnerability, the coming weeks will test whether the party's new leadership under Satheesan can project a clean break — or whether the controversies of the Vijayan era continue to shadow it.