If reports are to be believed, then V S Achuthanandan, Leader of the Opposition and central committee member of the CPI (M) will not campaign for party candidates Karayi brothers, both accused in a murder case.

The veteran leader is scheduled to be in Kannur district where both the brothers are contesting from, in the last week of October to campaign in the upcoming local polls in the state.

Karayi Rajan and Karayi Chandrasekharan are contesting for the Padyam division of Kannur district panchayat and Chellikkara ward of Thalassery municipality respectively.

Both the brothers are accused in the murder case of ex-CPI (M) leader, Fazal who had left the party and joined Popular Front of India. It is alleged that the two brothers had hired goons to kill Fazal.

Their candidature was decided after the duo was allowed to file nominations by the Kerala High Court after initially being thwarted to enter the district.

Defending the controversial decision, most CPI (M) leaders voiced a similar opinion that there’s nothing wrong in fielding them for polls as they were not convicted.

The veteran leader is scheduled to be in Kannur district in the last week of the month according to CPI (M) members.

It is believed it might be the party itself arranged the omission to avoid a similar embarrassment that it suffered from when V S Achuthanandan went against the party line and supported a CBI probe in the murder of rebel T P Chandrasekharan. Achutanandan and many other leaders in the party have had many public disagreements on Chandrasekharan murder, with the veteran leader insisting that the party should accept that its members were behind the murder.

It is widely known that Achuthanandan wasn’t particularly happy with the candidature of the Karayi brothers.