CPI-M Central Committee to decide next week on Kerala infighting

New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, July 5 : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), after its two-day politburo meet, decided Sunday to convene a meeting of the party's Central Committee July 11-12 to take a decision on curbing the infighting in its Kerala unit - between Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

'The politburo of the CPI-M discussed the organisational issues related to the Kerala state unit of the party. The politburo decided to convene a meeting of the Central Committee July 11-12, 2009, to consider the proposals of the politburo regarding the party affairs in Kerala,' a CPI-M statement said.

Achuthanandan has been under attack by the party cadre for seeking the removal of Vijayan - an accused in the multi-crore SNC-Lavlin scam - as party state secretary. On the other hand, Vijayan wants Achuthanandan to quit as chief minister for violating party discipline.

A few politburo members, including M.K. Pandhe and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, are said to have come out in support of Achuthanandan in his stand against corruption, a source close to the chief minister said. However, members supporting Vijayan were equally firm in demanding action against Achuthanandan.

The CPI-M Central Committee election review meeting earlier had held the state leaders guilty for the party's rout in the Lok Sabha polls.

The Central Committee is the highest decision making body of the party.

According to the Central Committee document: 'The disunity in the LDF (Left Democratic Front) led by the CPI-M was one of the factors for the defeat. The disunity in the party and LDF had an adverse impact on the people. Some of the statements of comrade V.S. Achuthanandan during the campaign had an adverse effect and helped the opposition campaign.'

A CPI-M leader told IANS in Thiruvananthapuram that it is not easy to find a solution to the matter because the party has to decide on the issue of corruption and discipline.

'The top leadership of the party is to be blamed for this impasse because they did not ensure discipline when it should have been done. They allowed the issue to drift and it has now reached a point of no return,' the leader said on condition of anonymity.

The two senior leaders have been at logger heads since early 2006. They clashed a few times openly forcing the politburo to take the extreme step of suspending both from the politburo in May 2007. They were reinstated in October the same year.

Vijayan was last month named seventh accused in the Rs.374-crore (Rs.3.74 billion) SNC Lavalin corruption case, by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

'Had Vijayan stepped down from the post as soon as he was named accused, then Achuthanandan would have to resign now. But since he did not, how can the second happen. Our party is going through one of its worst ever crisis since its inception in 1964,' said the CPI-M leader.