Achutanandan to act tough with 'anti-party' CITU leaders
D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram
Several heads in the Communist Party of India-Marxist in Kerala are set to roll with the party undertaking a postmortem of the Lok Sabha election results.
The conduct of certain leaders of the faction controlled by the Centre for Indian Trade Unions during the campaign
is likely to be closely scrutinised at the party's state secretariat
and state committee meetings this week. While the secretariat
has commenced a three-day session on Tuesday, the state committee
would meet from March 13 to 15.
The meetings of these two
powerful bodies assume significance in the light of an inquiry
already initiated by the Ernakulam district committee against
CITU president E Balanandan, secretary V B Cherian and central
committee members K N Ravindrananth and M M Lawrence for their
role in the defeat of the CPI-M nominees at Ernakulam and
Mukundapuram.
The district committee has appointed a five member Commission
to probe whether there was any conspiracy involved in the defeat
of Sebastian Paul and P Govinda Pillai at Ernakulam and Mukundapuram
respectively, following a complaint that the five senior leaders
had a secret meeting at Balanandan's home.
The CPI-M top brass feels the trade union
wing had not put its full mite in the election campaign
in several key constituencies including Alappuzha, Ernakulam and
Mukundapuram. The poor show by the party candidates in the CITU
pockets in all the three constituencies has lent credence to this complaint. The five
leaders have been under the shadow of doubt ever since they reacted strongly
against the total domination of the Achutanandan faction in the
organisational election held in January.
Balanandan, who
is a Politburo member, has been on the Achutanandan
faction's hit-list after he publicly aired his differences over the conduct
of the organisational election. He was even reprimanded by
party general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet for taking his
grievances to the media.
The trade union leaders were unhappy with the selection of
candidates for some key Lok Sabha
seats. The replacement of CITU men A Sampath in
Chirayankil and O Bharathan
in Badgara with nominees of the
Achutanandan faction had created great disenchantment. Though the Achutanandan nominees won both seats,
the sharp decline in the victory margin
is attributed to the CITU's indifference.
Though no complaints have been received about the
trade union wing working against party candidates,
the party leadership feels the 'save the CPI-M campaign' launched
by a section of its leaders had an adverse
impact on the party's performance. Secret circulars were issued, attacking Achutanandan for the way he captured the party machinery, to thousands of
workers across the state. The hands of
top CITU leaders are suspected behind the campaign, which emanated from
the Alappuzha and Kozhikode districts.
The CITU bosses have already taken
up the matter with the national leadership, and the Politburo is
slated to discuss the issue in its meeting next month.
Meanwhile, as the Achutanandan
group is keen to put CITU leaders in the dock before the
Politburo meets next, it will not be surprising if
the state committee, dominated by the faction,
comes up with some drastic steps. Earlier too, after the 1996 election, several CITU leaders were hauled
up for anti-party activities.
In fact, Achutanandan himself has been
a victim of such activities in the Mararikkulam assembly constituency.
An inquiry into his defeat had held several CITU leaders
responsible. Subsequently, action was taken against them; but the leader was far from satisfied with it. Now,
with the leadership firmly in hand, Achutanandan is
unlikely to spare those who worked against party candidates. C S Sujatha's defeat in Alappuzha
has been quite embarrassing for him
since she had been
handpicked by him.
Elections '98
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