Thiruvananthapuram, June 27 (IANS): Fresh trouble has broken out in the Kannur unit of the ruling CPI(M) as youth leader Manu Thomas on Thursday slammed veteran party leader P Jayarajan and alleged a threat to his life.

P Jayarajan is a former legislator and Kannur District Secretary of the party, which is the biggest unit of the CPI(M) in the country.

All the bigwigs of the party hail from Kannur, which includes Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, state Secretary MV Govindan and Left Democratic Front Convenor, EP Jayarajan.

Manu Thomas, who untill recently headed the youth wing of the party and was also the member of its powerful district committee is practically out of the party after he failed to renew his membership.

Manu Thomas had brought to the attention of the district unit of the party, certain undesirable activities of some people close to P Jayarajan.

Despite reminders, no one in the party took note of what Manu Thomas was saying and on Thursday he openly said that P Jayarajan’s son Jain Raj was controlling a gang engaged in an illegal gold business.

“Yes, he (Jain Raj) is the coordinator of those involved in that and is behind the ‘Red Army’ a very active social media group (formerly known as PJ Army). I had invited Jayarajan for an open discussion on issues which I raised and instead of accepting that, I am getting threats. I am the least afraid of such threats,” said Manu Thomas.

Following the debacle of the CPI(M) in the recent Lok Sabha polls especially in districts like Kannur, Kasargod, Kozhikode and Palakkad, where the CPI(M) always had a huge mass following, affairs in the Kannur unit have badly affected the top leaders, especially after finding that from their hardcore bastions, apart from the Congress, the BJP also got sizeable votes, clearly signaling that things are not rosy for all the top leaders hailing from Kannur.