A cold smile plays on his face as he straps on his prosthetic legs. He lost the real ones 22 years ago, hacked by his former CPM comrades, seeking vengeance for his cardinal sin: Ideological defection.

KANNUR: A cold smile plays on his face as he straps on his prosthetic legs. He lost the real ones 22 years ago, hacked by his former CPM comrades, seeking vengeance for his cardinal sin: Ideological defection. The NDA's Koothuparamba candidate, C Sadanandan Master, is often called a `living martyr', but the name he likes is warrior-survivor of Kannur's politics of bloodshed. Master, through his candidature, seeks to turn the spotlight on the district's blood-soaked political landscape.

"The assault on me was the CPM's warning to people that the same fate would befall them if they dared to break ranks. I am lucky to be alive to tell the tale. But the horrific memories that come back every morning when I see my artificial legs are painful," he says.

The assault happened on the night of January 25, 1994. It was a `gift' for his ideological shift from Marx and Engels to Hedgewar and Golwalkar and the setting up of an RSS shakha at his village near Mattannur.

"I remember hearing a couple of blasts as I got off a bus at Uruvachal. Before I could realise what was happening, someone grabbed me from behind, pushed me down and chopped off my legs," he recalls. In the fading light he recognised eight faces, all known.

"Semi-conscious, I lay bleeding profusely for 15 minutes. My body was numb as the police took me to hospital. Only then did I realise that I had lost both my legs, the knees. One leg lay nearby, the other was dumped somewhere. The police collected them in a bag and rushed me to hospital," he recalls. Reattachment surgeries were not common and the facility was available only in Ernakulam. The doctors were not sure if he would survive a long journey .So, the legs were sacrificed. His life was saved.

"Though I was in the SFI during my student days, I couldn't withstand their intolerance and violence. I slowly withdrew and started reading the writings of Akkitham Achuthan Namboodiri and P Parameshwaran. I got drawn to the RSS. The CPM wanted me to pay dearly. I don't feel I was wrong, because the communist ideology has lost relevance," he says. Though he fought the case legally, and the accused were brought to book in 2006, they are out on bail as their appeal is pending in the high court, Sadan andan says.

"My candidature came as a surprise, but I feel this is a God-given chance....I am sure it would bear fruit, but the hard task is to walk long distances," he says. The BJP knows its living martyr might not win the electoral battle, but he is more like a party mascot.

