Suspended CPI(M) leader reinstated on branch panel

The Koyilandy area committee of the CPI(M) has reinstated N.V. Balakrishnan, former area secretary, who was suspended from primary membership for authoring articles against the organisational policies of the party in a Gulf newspaper.

However, it is learnt that Mr. Balakrishnan will be a member of the Kuruvangad branch committee of the party.

And this decision has not pleased his supporters, who believe that he has been demoted to lowest rungs of the party set-up.

Conference

The development comes ahead of the Koyilandy area committee conference to be held at Arikkulam on December 27 and 28.

Previously the CPI (M) district leadership also replaced the area secretary K.K. Mohammed in a bid to quell the rebellion in the Koyilandy unit. Now K. Dasan, MLA, is holding temporary charge.

The faction led by Mr. Balakrishnan says that he should have been reinstated in the area committee itself. Incidentally he was reinstated to the branch committee only after the conference of the branch committee was over, thereby denying him a chance to participate in that meeting.

Factionalism

For more than a year, the district leadership has been devising ways and means to end the factionalism in the Koyilandy unit after the party faced heavy odds in electoral politics.

The Balakrishnan-faction wanted to remove Mr. Mohammed from the post of area secretary for a long time.

But in January, the area committee took action against him. This had led to a sort of rebellion in the rank and file of the party, resulting in K. Shanta, wife of Mr. Balakrishnan, resigning from the post of Koyilandy municipal chairperson.

But she rescinded her decision after a couple of days of uncertainty. This was following an intervention of the district leadership.

Subsequently a three-member committee led by A. Pradeepkumar, MLA, submitted a report on the allegations raised by the Balakrishnan faction against Mr. Mohammed.

The demotion of Mr. Balakrishnan can once again bring to the fore the bitter factionalism in the Koyilandy unit.

But party leaders hope that by reinstating the former area secretary they had diplomatically resolved the issue as the State leadership wanted.