Senior CPI(M) leader E P Jayarajan, who has often found himself in the party’s crosshairs, has again stirred a row, this time over his purported yet-to-be published autobiography, whose “leak” took place on a day when the state saw the Lok Sabha and Assembly bypolls, leaving the party-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) red-faced.

The purported excerpts from Jayarajan’s autobiography, titled “Black Tea and Parippu Vada – Life of a Communist”, became public on Wednesday after publisher DC Books announced the release of the book in its promotional post on social media that carried a photo of its cover page.

As the leaked content looked increasingly embarrassing for the CPI(M), DC Books put off the release of the book. “The release of Black Tea and Parippu Vada has been postponed for a few days due to a ‘technical issue in the book’. Details about the content will be clear when the book is published,” DC Books, a leading publishing house of the state, said in a Facebook post.

Jayarajan, a CPI(M) central committee member, admitted he was in the process of writing his autobiography, of which he had completed 200 pages (incidentally, the leaked draft is around 180 pages) and that a trusted journalist has been assigned the task, but denied giving a draft to any publisher.

“How can they (DC Books) publish (the content) without my consent. I am still writing my autobiography and have not seen their Facebook page,” he said.

However, CEO of DC Books, Ravi D C on Thursday claimed the Facebook post summed up what the publishing house wanted to say on the issue. “We are only facilitators and respect public figures. Hence, our comments are reserved,” he said on the sidelines of the Sharjah International Book Fair.

The purported draft indicated that the autobiography was intended to be published after the bypolls. “If the autobiography is published before voting, it would become controversial. After the elections, everything can be openly stated,” it states.

The draft is critical of the CPI(M) and speaks about “opportunistic politics”. “When we discuss opportunistic politics, we have to mention P Sarin [the CPI(M)-backed Independent in the Palakkad Assembly bypoll], who overnight switched to the LDF after he was denied a ticket by the Congress. It needs to be examined whether such candidates are motivated by positions. Only time will tell if the decision to back Sarin was right or wrong,” it reads.

The draft is also critical of the second Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF tenure, calling for drastic organisational and administrative measures as correctives.

“The first tenure had created a good impression among people but could not be retained. Our journey ahead will depend on the extent to which we rectify ourselves,” it says.

Claiming that the Left was becoming weak in Kerala, the purported excerpts claim that Jayarajan was shunted out from the LDF convener’s post in August as the party did not “understand” him. “I am a victim of fake image creation and my friendships have been interpreted in many ways,” it states, blaming certain people of being “jealous of his growth in politics”.

Alleging a “conspiracy” behind the content being leaked, Jayarajan on Wednesday filed a complaint with the state police chief and also slapped a notice on DC Books, urging them to withdraw their promotional social media posts.

As his “revelations” seemed to affect the party’s prospects in Palakkad, scheduled for polls on November 20, Jayarajan on Thursday rushed to the constituency to campaign for Sarin.

As the matter snowballed into a controversy, the CPI(M) sought to play it down. “He (Jayarajan) said there is a conspiracy and has stated that he is not aware of how the matter was leaked. The party is going by his version,” CPI (M) state secretary M V Govindan said.

Jayarajan has reportedly been sulking for the past two years after the party chose Govindan over him as its state secretary. He was removed as LDF convener for meeting the BJP’s Kerala in-charge Prakash Javadekar ahead of the recent Lok Sabha polls, which became public as Kerala voted for it on April 26.

Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan claimed it was known that the purported book was authored by Jayarajan. “Now, due to the bypolls, he (Jayarajan) and his party are lying. Let the party probe if his friends or foes within the CPI(M) are behind this,” he alleged.