Kodiyeri Balakrishnan new CPI(M) state Secretary in Kerala

KOCHI: Deputy leader of opposition and former home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has been elected secretary of CPM Kerala unit at the end of the three-day conference in Alappuzha on Monday. The party conference reconstituted the state committee leaving out opposition leader VS Achuthanandan for the first time.

There are 15 new faces in the state committee. The party has kept a seat vacant in its 88 member state committee.

However, as central committee member, Achuthanandan can still attend state committee meetings.

Achuthanandan, who walked out of the state conference on Saturday after his stand on various issues invited criticism from the party leadership, refused to return to state conference venue. Though the CPM general secretary Prakash Karat requested him to come back, Achuthanandan decided not to return.

Achuthanandan said he was not returning to the conference venue at Alappuzha as he was dubbed “anti party” by the state leadership. He also demanded that the party members linked to the TP Chandrashekharan murder case should be expelled from the party.

Balakrishnan said that the stand taken by the opposition leader VS Achuthananthan has indirectly helped CPM’s political rivals in many ways. He said that Achuthanandan should have returned to the party conference and raised his complaints against the leadership within the party fora. He said that the opposition leader could have discussed the matters in the party secretariat.

“It was the party general secretary who assured him that his complaints will be looked into. He should have come back”, he added.