The Congress leadership on Thursday picked on CPI(M) polit bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan’s reference about the resolution against Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan to kick start the party’s second phase election campaign.
There was hardly any Congress leader of note who did not refer to the former State secretary’s observations and its import on the inner-party affairs of the CPI(M). Mr. Vijayan, while replying to questions at a meet-the-press programme, had maintained that the resolution censuring Mr. Achuthanandan adopted by the Alappuzha State conference was valid, though it did not have any bearing on the veteran’s nomination as the party’s candidate in the May 16 Assembly election.
KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran said that the statements of Mr. Vijayan and other leaders subsequently only went on to indicate the major crisis in the CPI(M). With the elections around the corner, the schism in the party has touched such low levels that it has become difficult for a section in the CPI(M) to accommodate fully the senior-most leader in the party, he said.
He said the LDF had promised that everything would be set right if it came to power. But it appears that not everything is quite all right in the CPI(M).
Mr. Sudheeran said that there was nothing unusual in printing Mr. Chandy’s full size photograph on the cover of the election manifesto. Unlike the CPI(M), the Congress leaders do not display intolerance on similar occasions.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said that schism in the CPI(M) was at its peak. Mr. Vijayan’s statement was a message to the party workers in Malampuzha, because his objective was to stage a repeat of the electoral defeat suffered by Mr. Achuthanandan in Mararikulam Assembly seat in 1996.
