The chief of Kerala’s communist party kicked off a controversy on Thursday as he drove to a rally in a luxury car owned allegedly by a local businessman who faces money laundering charges, Mint has reported.

According to the report, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) leader Kodiyeri Balakrishna used a Rs 44 lakh Mini Cooper car to reach a rally in Koduvally in North Kerala’s Calicut district.

The incident came to light after leaders of opposition parties, including the Indian Union Muslim League secretary Mayin Haji and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader K. Surendran, criticised the move.

Surendran posted a picture on Facebook and poked fun at him for addressing crowds in a luxury car while calling himself the leader of a “revolutionary party”.

The incident came as an embarrassment for the CPI(M), which had in its annual party plenum in 2016 asked leaders to not hold lavish festivities or having inclinations towards a “bourgeois lifestyle.”

The owner of the car, identified as Karat Faisal, is an accused in a 2013 gold smuggling case. According to local news channel Manorama News, he was questioned by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in 2013, after an Audi at his home was found to be registered in the name of a close relative. The relative, identified as Shahabaaz, is the main accused in the smuggling case.