The State CPI leadership has decided to initiate action against senior leader K.E. Ismail for having spoken out of turn on the party’s stand on the Thomas Chandy issue.
The party State executive committee, which met here on Wednesday with Mr. Ismail in attendance, decided to drop the former Minister and party national executive committee member from the CPI’s panel of representatives to the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) committee meetings and to move the national leadership for further action against him.
The party would be represented at the LDF panel meetings by party State secretary Kanam Rajendran, former State secretary Pannian Ravindran and Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan. Briefing reporters after a CPI executive committee meeting, Mr. Rajendran said the executive committee had also approved the leadership’s decision to keep party’s Ministers out of the Cabinet meeting on November 15 to force former Transport Minister Thomas Chandy to resign.
Without consultations
The action had been initiated against Mr. Ismail as his statement, forming part of an improptu interview given to a TV channel, gave the impression that the party leadership had decided to keep CPI Ministers away from the Cabinet meeting without broad consultations. The decision to boycott the Cabinet meeting in the event of Mr. Chandy, who subsequently resigned as Transport Minister, attending it was taken with the knowledge of everyone in the State leadership.
At the meeting, Mr. Ismail had pleaded innocence and stated that his words were plucked out of context to give the impression that he had spoken against the party decision.
Unanimous decision
The decision to initiate action against him was unanimous and had the approval of Mr. Ismail as well, Mr. Rajendran said. Mr. Rajendran also came out strongly in support of the government’s decision to bring in reservation for economically weaker sections in forward communities. The decision, he pointed out, was fully in keeping with the promise of the LDF in its election manifesto.
