K. Balakrishnan, a former MLA, was unanimously elected as the State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), at the party’s 22nd State conference chaired by Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the party, on Tuesday. He replaced G. Ramakrishan, who first became the secretary in 2010 when the then secretary N. Varadarajan wanted to retire on health grounds.
A member of the party’s central committee and State secretariat, Mr. Balakrishan, elected from Chidambaram constituency in 2011, also functioned as the party’s whip in the Assembly. He was also the president of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, affiliated to the party.
On Tuesday, the party passed around 60 resolutions concerning problems faced by people of the State. Mr. Balakrishnan said strategies were also devised to defeat the BJP-AIADMK ‘coalition.’
While talking to reporters, he accused the State government of having failed to safeguard rights of people of Tamil Nadu. “The BJP-led Centre is attempting to capitalise on the weakened AIADMK government. Despite a series of protests against NEET, the Centre introduced it against the interest of people of Tamil Nadu. Moreover, compensation by the government for Cyclone Ockhi victims was inadequate. As many as 1.35 crore family cards have been categorised as ‘non priority cards’ and many common people would not be able to fetch rice from fair price shops,” he added.
