The Communist Party of India (CPI) national council has decided to drop former Minister C. Divakaran from the party national executive committee.
Party national council, which concluded its three-day meeting in New Delhi on Sunday, took the decision based on the report of the State unit of the party and a letter from Mr. Divakaran expressing the desire to be left out as he was no longer a member of the CPI State executive.
The party State council had on July 9 decided to remove Mr. Divakaran from the State executive based on the report of a three-member committee that had looked into allegations of serious irregularities in the selection of candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency and source funding for the election campaign. The State council had taken action against former party district secretaries P. Ramachandran Nair and Venjramood Sasi as well.
Party general secretary K. Sudhakar Reddy told reporters in Delhi that Mr. Divakaran had submitted a letter of resignation from the national executive. In his letter, Mr. Divakaran had pointed out that he considered it inappropriate for him to continue in the national executive after being removed from the State executive. The national council accepted his request. He would continue to be a member of the national council, Mr. Reddy said.
Speaking to The Hindu over phone from Delhi, CPI State secretary Pannian Ravindran said the national council meeting did not go into any other organisational issue relating to the party State unit. The council, he said, had decided to hold the Party Congress at Puducherry from March 25 to 29 and complete the State conference before March. The party State executive and State council would meet on September 30 and October 1 to decide the venue and other details regarding the State conference, Mr. Ravindran said.