New Delhi, July 12: Intending to put an end to the infighting in its Kerala unit, the CPI(M) on Sunday removed its
senior most leader and Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan from the Politburo for violating organisational principle and discipline.
He would continue as the Chief Minister as well as a
member of the party central committee.
Achuthanandan`s prime detractor and Kerala party
secretary Pinarayi Vijayan escaped unscathed as the Central
Committee merely referred to the SNC Lavalin contract case
involving him and said he was "not involved in any corrupt
practice whatsoever."
After a two-day meeting to discuss the issue, the Central
Committee authorised the Politburo to take "necessary steps"
to implement its decisions on the ongoing factionalism.
It asked the Kerala party unit to "unify the entire party
and go to the people with the political and organisational
tasks which have been spelt out in the review of the Lok Sabha
elections," a party statement said.
The infighting has heavily cost the CPI(M) in its
stronghold of Kerala where the number of its seats in Lok
Sabha came down from 16 to four in the last general elections.
The party said it would fight the Lavalin case, in which
Vijayan is being prosecuted by CBI, both politically and
legally.
However, the Central Committee recognised Achuthanandan
as "the senior most leader who has made a big contribution to
the party in Kerala."
The statement said the Committee "expected" the 86-year
old Achuthanandan "to fulfil his responsibilities as the
Chief Minister and as a leader of the party."
Some members felt that drastic steps like removal of
Achuthanandan from the Chief Minister`s post would have
unnecessarily created problems, both politically as well as
organisationally. So, the idea of his demotion from the
Politburo was mooted.
During the deliberations, several Central Committee
members also sought some action, including public censure,
against Vijayan saying he had failed to steer the party in a
united manner during the last elections.
Some leaders are understood to have said that the Kerala
leadership under Vijayan kept projecting that the Left was
going to win handsomely till the vote counting, thus proving
how far they were from reality and cut off from the people.
Both Vijayan and Achuthanandan had been suspended from
the Politburo two years ago for taking their differences to
the public fora. They were, however, taken back.
In the past several years, the CPI(M) has thrown out some
of its senior leaders like M V Raghavan and K R Gowry Amma in
the past for differing with the party line.
Both Vijayan and Achuthanandan were in Delhi to attend
the meeting of the Politburo and the Central Committee.
However, the latter did not attend the meeting today as his
issue was taken up for a final decision.
The Politburo had yesterday placed its recommendations
before the Central Committee on organisational matters in
Kerala as well as the SNC Lavalin case involving a contract
with the Canadian firm to renovate and modernise three
hydroelectric projects in the state.
These contracts were entered into by the Congress-led UDF
government in 1995-96 and subsequently implemented by the LDF
government between 1996-98 when Vijayan was the state
Electricity Minister.
The meeting of the 87-member Central Committee was
attended by party General Secretary Prakash Karat, Sitaram
Yechury, M K Pandhe, Brinda Karat, West Bengal Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, S Ramachandran Pillai, Tripura Chief
Minister Manik Sarkar and West Bengal Left Front Chairman
Biman Bose among others.
The Politburo, at its meeting last week which saw heated
debate on the issue, had convened the meeting of the Central
Committee to discuss the serious factional feud in Kerala.
Bureau Report
