“Many CPM leaders too had expressed their concerns regarding the practicality of the strike. But, eventually the party had to yield before the stubborn stand taken by VS. Virtually, both fronts were facing a crisis”, Cherian said.

“Thiruanchoor had expressed his apprehensions that whether the capital city would become a battlefield due to the presence of thousands of uncontrollable party workers. But, CPM was thinking about the solution regarding the primary needs of workers coming in large numbers to the capital city. It was at this juncture that the discussion took place to end the crisis”, he said.

“From Thiruvanchoor’s house, I went straight to the office of Kairali Channel. When I was there, Thiruvanchoor called me. He had asked me whether there is any solution to end the crisis. Then I said, CPM too wants to end the strike. I was with John Brittas when the call came and I handed over the phone to Brittas. We had shared our apprehensions regarding a possible violence as thousands of party workers had gathered at Thiruvananthapuram. If anything goes wrong, nobody would be able to control the mob. The police also would be forced to take some drastic steps”, Cherian said.

“It was I who had arranged the phone conversation between Thiruvanchoor and Brittas”, said Cherian. In the evening I went to the house of Thiruvanchoor accompanied by Brittas. Thiruvanchoor might have discussed about our meeting to Oommen Chandy. Brittas had discussed about this with Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. At that stage, it was the need of Kerala to end the strike . CPM was very much relieved too”, he said. Though a compromise deal was made, it didn’t influence the investigation in connection with the solar case, Cherian said.

The controversy erupted when senior journalist John Mundakkayam made some revelations in his story in a malayalam weekly that John Brittas had intervened to end the secretariat siege of CPM.