GIVING a heavy blow to the Sangh Parivar, more than two thousand dissident BJP workers including the former National Council member O K Vasu and former Kannur district general secretary A Ashokan have quit the BJP and came over to the CPI(M). On January 28, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan welcomed the new entrants to the party’s fold. The public meeting held on the occasion at Panur in Kannur district on Tuesday was attended by tens of thousands of people. More than two thousand BJP workers have left the saffron party and had expressed their willingness to cooperate with the CPI(M) a few days back. For the last few months, they were working through a non-political platform called the Namo Vichar Manch. Most of the workers are from Panur, one of the RSS strongholds in the state. These dissident leaders were engaged a continuing tirade against BJP leadership for its undemocratic posture and moral erosion. The state BJP leadership’s move to hush up a complaint against the BJP’s Kannur district president K Ranjith about his alleged illegitimate connection with a Mahila Morcha leader also irked the dissidents. They also blamed the state leadership for neglecting the issues in the district unit. This undemocratic attitude prompted to them to disassociate from the BJP and form a new organisation. Initially, this organisation cooperated the LDF struggle against the Kasturi Rangan Report but later on this group decided to join the CPI(M). The RSS leadership reacted with a violent tirade on these leaders. While inaugurating the massive meeting to receive the former BJP leaders, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said that dissatisfaction expressed by some quarters about the decision to receive these leaders was baseless. The party will not shut its doors to those who wish to associate with us. Those who show intolerance want to weaken the CPI(M). Right wing and left extremist forces are criticising this decision simultaneously. Vijayan said the former BJP leaders came to our fold after shedding all the right wing ideology and they are committed to uphold the policies of the CPI(M). CONVICTIONS IN THE CHANDRASHEKHARAN CASE ELEVEN persons out of 12 convicts were awarded life imprisonment in the T P Chandrasekharan murder case by a special court in Kozhikode. Eight of the convicts were members of the gang that hacked to death Chandrasekharan while the other three were found to have plotted the murder. The first seven accused who executed the murder (M C Anup, Manoj Kumar, N K Sunilkumar, T K Rajish, K K Muhammed Shafi, S Sijith, K Shinoj), the eighth accused (K C Ramachandran), the 11th accused (Manojan), the 13th accused (P K Kunjanandan) and the 18th accused (P V Rafiq) were awarded life terms. M K Pradeepan got a three years term. Special additional sessions judge, R Narayana Pisharody, has also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the first seven accused and Rs one lakh on the eighth, 11th, 13th and 18th accused. They were found guilty under sections 302 (murder), 143 (unlawful assembly) and 147 (rioting) of the IPC. The judge held that the first seven accused, who executed the murder, were "tools in the hands of the persons who entertained political enmity towards the deceased." Earlier the court had acquitted CPI(M) leaders including the party’s Kozhikode district secretariat member P Mohanan who had been implicated in the case with clear political motives. T P Chandrashekharan, leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, was killed on May 4, 2012.