MV Jayarajan: To Secure Red Fort In The Debut Lok Sabha Contest (image: .instagram.com/mvjayarajanofficial)

MV Jayarajan, a veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, will be representing the party in Kannur parliamentary constituency in the upcoming general elections. He currently holds the position of Kannur District Secretary and is a State Committee member of the party.

For a two-time legislator, elections are not new fete for MV Jayarajan, but this is his first innings at the Lok Sabha polls. In 1996 and 2001, he represented the Kannur”s Edakkad assembly constituency in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. In the 1996 Assembly election, he defeated Congress candidate AD Mustafa for 7284 votes, and in 2001, he defeated Congress” N Ramakrishnan for a margin of 5329 votes. However, he tasted defeat in the next electoral battle. In the Kannur Assembly by-election, AP Abdullakutty (a serial party hopper who shifted from the CPI (M) to the Congress party and then to BJP) defeated Jayarajan by a margin of 12043 votes.

In his youth days, he held the positions of All-India joint secretary and state secretary of DYFI, the youth wing of CPI(M). During the first Pinarayi Vijayan-led CPI-M government, he served as the political secretary of the Chief Minister of Kerala for a few years. He took the position of Kannur District Secretary when P Jayarajan, then secretary of the party, quit his post in 2019 to contest from Vadakara in the General Elections.

MV Jayarajan, undoubtedly, yields strong influence among people. He is known for his sharp remarks, which often invite controversies. For calling State High Court judges “idiots” (shumban), the high court took suo moto cognisance, convicted him for contempt, and awarded him six months imprisonment in 2010. However, after serving a week in jail, Jayarajan was granted bail by the Supreme Court. He made similar infamous remarks on different political matters in Kerala.