It is a controversy the CPM government in Kerala can ill-afford, especially after the drubbing it got in the Lok Sabha elections. On June 18, an NRI entrepreneur in Kannur in north Kerala, Sajan Parayil , died by suicide. In a state with a suicide rate of 21.5 per lakh population — and in a country where the national average is 17 — the death would have been just one more tragic statistic. But not this one.The family of the businessman, who had spent several years in Nigeria, blamed local CPM members for pushing the 48-year-old over the brink. Parayil had spent around Rs 15 crore of his savings in constructing a convention hall in Anthoor municipality, Kannur district. But, according to his widow, Beena, the chairperson of the municipality where the CPM is in power, PK Shyamala , steadfastly refused to give him clearance, even saying that he would not be able to open his convention centre as long as she was in power.In his death, Parayil seemed to have lifted the lid off a slew of complaints against CPM functionaries hindering business ventures, going by reports in the Malayalam media. The Malayala Manorama published a “contract” signed between a granite quarry owner and the local CPM leadership in Lakkidi Perur in Palakkad, which included ridiculous clauses such as an agreement that neither he nor his family would contest the local body polls against the CPM, they would not cultivate political ties with BJP and RSS, Left trade union CITU’s workers would be allowed to load 10 truckloads of granite and that he would help the CPM-led panchayat leadership.Another NRI businessman in Kozhikode, Noushad, told the media that he had been waiting for three years for permission from the city corporation, where the CPM is in power, to run a manufactured sand (a substitute for river sand) unit he had set up. These incidents also revived memories of the death of 64-year-old Sugathan a year ago. The Kollam resident had returned after three decades in West Asia and died by suicide allegedly after members of a CPI body demanded a large sum of money for allowing him to construct a workshop on leased land.None of this sits well with the image Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been assiduously cultivating: of Kerala having transformed into an investor-friendly destination under the CPM government, which came to power in 2016. It was just last month that Vijayan rang the bell at the London Stock Exchange, the first Indian chief minister to do so, to mark the listing of the so-called masala bonds issued by Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board. Last year, he had snagged the deal for carmaker Nissan’s global technology hub, which will be in state capital Thiruvananthapuram. This was a coup, expected to generate jobs and, more importantly, change the narrative that foreign investments and businesses were unwelcome in Kerala.As the party was battling the heat from Parayil’s death came the news that a rape complaint had been registered against CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s son, Binoy, in Mumbai. The complainant, a native of Bihar, said she had a relationship with Binoy after he had promised to marry her.But Binoy did not keep his promise, she alleged, adding that she also has a child with him. Binoy said he knew the woman but called the allegation “baseless” and an attempt to blackmail.This is not the first time Binoy is putting his father and the CPM in a fix. In 2018, a Dubai resident filed a case against him for defaulting on a loan of Rs 13 crore. Binoy’s younger brother, Bineesh, had a similar case registered against him for defaulting on a loan in Dubai. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said the law should take its course and he would not support Binoy, whose bail plea will be heard on July 1.Binoy’s matter may be a personal affair, say political analysts, but it has definitely caused embarrassment to the CPM. “Binoy Balakrishnan’s issue might be a personal matter but the message it sends out is that the CPM party secretary’s children are leading a loose, luxurious life with money they have evidently not earned through business or farming. It will definitely hurt the party’s image in Kerala,” says A Jayasankar, a lawyer and critic of the CPM.While Kerala does not have a businessfriendly environment like Gujarat or Tamil Nadu, the refusal of permission to Parayil was the result of the inner tussles in the Kannur unit of the CPM than anything else, says Jayasankar. Parayil himself was a CPM sympathiser and had approached the party’s powerful leader from Kannur, P Jayarajan, for help. This attempt to circumvent the local leadership raised the hackles of chairperson Shyamala, who is married to the party’s central committee member MV Govindan, a rival of Jayarajan. “There might have been minor violations in the construction but it was because the municipality stubbornly refused to give consent that he couldn’t open the convention centre,” says Jayasankar, the lawyer.The chief minister is backing Govindan and initial reports that Shyamala will be made to step down have come to nought, while four other members of the council have been dismissed.Observers point to other attempts to cut Jayarajan to size. The Kannur strongman, who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Vadakara, was made to relinquish the post of district secretary when he was made an election candidate. The party has also instructed Jayarajan to rein in his followers on a Facebook page called PJ Army that is dedicated to lionising him, even at the cost of running down the party occasionally.“This is all about who is the bigger leader in CPM,” says KC Umesh Babu, a writer expelled by the party in 2007 for criticising it. “And because the CPM in Kerala is now a divided house, there is limited scope for firefighting.”Coming on the back of the Lok Sabha results, when the CPM managed to win only 1 out of 20 seats in Kerala, the recent developments have caught the party on the back foot. In its appraisal of the results, much of the blame has been apportioned to its stand on the Sabarimala verdict. But analysts say that is just one of the factors, along with others like losing the minority vote. “The truth is that the CPM is getting alienated from the people, and not just in Kerala. They dare not look the real problems in the eye because that would mean they have to admit their mistakes,” says veteran journalist BRP Bhaskar.The party has announced a slew of measures to regain the confidence of people in Kerala. In the interim, reports in the media of businessmen who have allegedly been victims of party highhandedness continue to hurt it.