Painting the city red, the four-day State conference of the CPI(M) will begin here on Thursday. Thrissur, which had witnessed many revolutionary struggles, is hosting the State conference after a gap of 37 years.
All the 18 roads and sub-roads to the Swaraj Round have been decorated with red festoons. Statues and floats with socially relevant themes have been exhibited everywhere.
Green Protocol has been strictly maintained. In all, 43,000 terracotta hundis were used for collecting funds for the conference. Terracotta pots and glasses will be used for distributing drinking water. Bamboo, jute, and wood have been used for decoration.
The Regional Theatre (V.V. Dakshinamurthy Nagar), the main venue, has literately become a red fort. Both sides of the road from Rama Nilayam to Kerala Lalithakala Akademi have been decorated with hard board to resemble the Red Fort in Delhi. Torchlight processions from memorials of 577 martyrs reached the K.K. Mamakutty Nagar (Thekkinkadu maidan) on Wednesday. Flag from Kayyur and flag mast from Vayalar have also reached there.
Party leader Baby John hoisted the flag. Chief Minister and Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan lighted the torchlight.
The delegates’ meeting will begin at Regional Theatre on Thursday morning.
Senior leader V.S. Achuthanandan will hoist the flag and party secretary Sitaram Yechury will inaugurate the meeting.
State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan will present the report of the past three years. The delegates’ meeting will be held till February 25. Polit Bureau members Prakash Karat, S. Ramachandran Pillai, Pinarayi Vijayan, A.K. Padmanabhan, and M.A. Baby will take part. In all, 582 delegates will be participating in the meeting.
A red volunteer march by 25,000 volunteers will be held on February 25. A public meeting, to be participated by two lakh party workers, will follow.
“Kerala model is an alternative to the right-wing politics led by the BJP. The pro-right wing media are unleashing a combined attack on Left parties. But the CPI(M) will not collapse in such attacks,” said party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
Party activities in the grassroots would be strengthened. The State conference would plan strategies to fight the false propaganda against the party, he added.
State committee meeting
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) State secretariat meeting and State committee meeting were held at Azhikodan Memorial, the party district office, here on Wednesday. The meetings were held against the backdrop of allegations against the party’s involvement in the Shuhaib murder.
The remarks by senior police officers against the party have put the party in a spot.
As the Lok Sabha elections are nearing, the conference is expected to plan the party strategies for the polls.
