The 21{+s}{+t}State conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] concluded in Alappuzha on Monday electing Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan the new State secretary and, significantly, leaving out party veteran V.S. Achuthanandan from the reconstituted State committee.
Sixty one year-old Mr. Balakrishnan takes over from Pinarayi Vijayan, who has been leading the party in the State for the past 16 years. He is the seventh person to hold the post in the 50-year history of the party. Mr. Balakrishnan, currently deputy leader of the CPI(M) in the Assembly, was widely tipped to become the State secretary well before the conference began.
The meeting also constituted an 88-member State committee, but left one position vacant, reportedly to accommodate Mr. Achuthanandan if he decides to fall in line with the party diktat and gives up his rebellious position as part of which he had boycotted the conference on the second day on Saturday.There are 15 new faces in the reconstituted State committee. Besides Mr. Achuthanandan, the conference dropped seven senior leaders from the State committee, including Polit Bureau member M.A. Baby, as he is supposed to work out of New Delhi.
Briefing reporters after the delegates’ session, Mr. Balakrishnan said Mr. Achuthanandan was not included in the State committee as he did not return to the State conference heeding party general secretary Prakash Karat’s request on Sunday.
Instead of doing so, he had come up with new demands, which was not acceptable to the party, Mr. Balakrishnan said and added that the new State committee would consider including him in the committee later.
The party would give all due respect to Mr. Achuthanandan and there was no immediate need to have a new Leader of the Opposition, he said.
