The 23rd Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (CPI) got off to a dynamic start here on Wednesday with party general secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy hoisting the red flag.
A procession carrying the flag mast from the Sooranad martyrs’ column reached the venue at Kadappakkada Sports Club by 5.30 p.m. Atul Kumar Anjaan received the flag brought to the venue from Kayyur by a team of party workers led by Binoy Viswam. The torch from Vaylar reached Kollam around 6 p.m. while the red flag from Puducherry, the last venue of the party congress, was brought by national council member Viswanathan. The torch was lit by D. Raja at A.B. Bardhan Nagar (Younus Convention Centre, Asramam).
Filmmaker Vinayan presided over a cultural meeting that followed the flag-hoisting ceremony. Perumal Murugan inaugurated the meeting where veteran composer and this year’s State award winner M.K. Arjunan, singer P.K. Medhini and national award winning director V.C. Abhilash were honoured.
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Book release
A total of five books, including three published by Prabhat Book House, were released by Mr. Reddy on Tuesday. The books released included the Hindi translation of
Central control committee member C.A. Kurian will hoist the flag and Mr. Reddy will inaugurate the delegate session at 11 a.m. on April 26. The inaugural session will be attended by Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc), Kshiti Goswami (RSP), Provash Ghosh (SUCI) and Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML).
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The party congress will conclude with a rally on April 29 evening. Over 900 delegates are expected to participate in the five-day conference and all the representatives will be gifted with Aranmula Kannadi and bottles of honey.