Suspended CPI(M) worker not to join RMP

N.V. Balakrishnan, who has been suspended from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M] for a year, has scotched rumours that he will join the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP).

Speaking to the media here on Monday, Mr. Balakrishnan declined to comment if he would file an appeal in the district committee against the decision of the area committee to suspend his primary membership of the party. The reason cited for his suspension was that he had authored articles against the organisational policies of the party in a Gulf newspaper.

He said that he had been associated with the CPI(M) for 33 years. It was not easy to leave the party so quickly. Suspension was part of an organisational system of the party.

Leaders of many political parties had called him after he was placed under suspension. The articles he had penned contained anti-party references. However, he had clarified to the CPI(M) that he had authored them to maintain professionalism, Mr. Balakrishnan said.

Replying to a query, he said that he could not foretell whether he too would have to face similar challenges like that of the slain RMP leader T.P. Chandrasekharan. He was still associated with the party unlike Chandrasekharan who left the party to form the RMP. The party would not persecute him, Mr. Balakrishnan said.

The internal bickering in the Koyilandy unit of the party saw his wife, K. Santha, resigning from the post of Koyilandy municipal chairperson on Saturday. This was in protest against the decision of the area committee to suspend him from the party.