Thiruvananthapuram | CPI (M) veteran and ruling LDF Convener E P Jayarajan on Monday sought to downplay the controversy surrounding his meeting with BJP leader Prakash Javadekar, saying it was not a political one, which is why he did not inform his party about it.
He also dismissed the claim of BJP's Lok Sabha candidate for Alappuzha, Shobha Surendran, that he expressed interest to join the saffron party and reiterated that he had never ever met her before or discussed it even over the phone.
The CPI (M) leader said he hadn't liked Surendran and termed the woman leader's speeches as "awkward." Jayarajan was speaking to reporters when he arrived here to take part in the party secretariat at the AKG Centre, the CPI (M) headquarter here.
"Is there a need to inform the party about all those who meet me? Did any political discussion take place? A person just came and met me. Should I inform the party about it?" he asked.
The CPI(M) veteran also said there was nothing unusual for people to meet senior leaders, and there was no need to report everything to the party.
Asked whether he was being targeted, the leader said he suspected that there was an agenda behind the developments.
He also wanted the media to carry out an impartial investigation into the raging issue.
Meanwhile, T G Nandakumar, who allegedly played the role of a middleman by facilitating Jayarajan's alleged meeting with the BJP leadership, also rejected Shobha Surendran's charges against the CPI(M) leader.
"What Shobha Surendran had claimed against E P Jayarajan was baseless. She had never met him... She had no role in the meeting between Jayarajan and Javadekar," he told the media.
He further claimed that Jayarajan had neither visited New Delhi nor Dubai, as claimed by Surendran, in connection with the meeting.
The accusations levelled by political opponents about Jayarajan's alleged plans to join the BJP triggered shock waves in the ruling Left.
The row acquired a new dimension after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Lok Sabha election day, cautioned Jayarajan to be vigilant in his associations.
Shobha Surendran had dropped a bombshell recently that a middleman tried to help a top CPI(M) leader who wanted to defect to the BJP, and on the eve of LS elections claimed that the leader was E P Jayarajan.