Feb. 6: The storm raging over an ongoing agitation for the removal of a Kerala law college principal has now pitted ruling alliance partners CPI and CPM against each other.

State CPM leader E.P. Jayarajan today lashed out at a CPI mouthpiece, Janayugam, for "becoming a puppet in the hands of anti-Left forces" over opinion pieces flaying chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. "CPI leaders feel they are intellectuals. But the CPI is not such an influential party," Jayarajan said.

The attack followed two opinion pieces that lampooned Vijayan for his "ignorance" about a noted freedom fighter and finance minister of the erstwhile state of Travancore-Kochi state, P.S. Nataraja Pillai, who was also the original owner of the 12-acre Thiruvananthapuram plot on which the Kerala Law Academy Law College was subsequently built.

The war of words between the allies came as the students' agitation for the ouster of Lakshmi Nair, the college principal and celebrity chef, entered the 27th day today, forcing the institute to remain shut.

Lakshmi faces allegations ranging from land grab to harassment of students. The state's first private law college was founded in 1968 by Lakshmi's father and incumbent director N. Narayanan Nair. His younger brother Krishnan Nair is a CPM state committee member.

The CPI mouthpiece picked on Vijayan as the chief minister referred to freedom fighter Pillai as "some Pillai". "You spoke about some Pillai," the chief minister had said on Saturday,alluding to a reporter's query about returning the law academy land to Pillai's heirs.

The opinion pieces slammed Vijayan for his "ignorance of Kerala's political history" and for rejecting demands for an inquiry into alleged irregularities in allocating the land to the law academy.

Jayarajan, the CPM leader, decried the CPI publication's attacks on Vijayan. Jayarajan accused the ally of ignoring the "basic ethics" of the alliance. "The CPI should not degenerate into such a party. The people are watching the real nature of this (college) agitation, which is being led by the CPI in collaboration with the RSS and the Congress," Jayarajan alleged.

Yesterday, Vijayan did issue a clarification and suggested he had not meant to slight the freedom fighter. "Since I didn't get the name, I said some Pillai."

State Congress chief V.M. Sudheeran has asked Vijayan to apologise to Pillai's family and termed his slip "very unfortunate." Pillai, a Congress leader, had inherited the property from his wealthy father P.M. Sundaran Pillai. It was originally leased to the academy in 1967, a year before the college was started.

Lakshmi, the law college principal, has dismissed demands for her ouster, insisting it was not a government institution. The controversy has fuelled a social media tirade against her and the CPM for its alleged inaction against the institution, even though it is affiliated to Kerala University.

Today, Lakshmi complained to the state police chief against offensive online posts targeting her family members, specifically her son and his fiancée. She is among those who have allegedly benefited from what the protesting students have dubbed an "internal assessment scam" at the academy.