Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

All eyes on CPI (M) Polit Bureau meet

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The attention of the political community in Kerala would remain focussed on New Delhi for two days beginning Saturday as the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) goes into a huddle specifically to discuss issues relating to the party’s Kerala State unit and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government headed by it.

The decision to hold the two-day special Polit Bureau meeting was taken by the party Polit Bureau and Central committee, which had met in the national capital last month to review the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections. The situation in Kerala was considered too serious to be discussed as part of the national scene given the special circumstances that led to the electoral drubbing that the LDF suffered and the sharp variance in the perceptions of the party’s State leadership and Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan about the election defeat.

One major issue that would figure in the discussions of the Polit Bureau would be the SNC-Lavalin corruption case in which CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has been listed as the seventh accused. The party has officially taken the position that the case is politically motivated. It has also declared its resolve to fight the case politically and legally. The election review report of the party Central committee had not directly attributed the LDF’s defeat to the Lavalin case. The Central committee was of the view that the media had blown the whole issue out of proportion giving a strong campaign plank to the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF). However, going by available indications, the matter is far from settled within the party.

Simultaneously, the Polit Bureau would also be taking up for discussion the State party leadership’s charges against Mr. Achuthanandan, particularly his public remarks about the Lavalin case and Governor R.S. Gavai’s decision to grant prosecution sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation and the tie-up with the Abdul Nasir Maudany-led People’s Democratic Party. Mr. Achuthanandan faces the charge of having refused to go by the decisions of the party on more than one occasion and provided enough grist to the UDF’s campaign mill with his remarks on crucial issues. That Mr. Achuthanandan’s was the only name figuring in the Central committee’s election review report has not gone unnoticed by either camp.

The Polit Bureau and Central committee have already made known their displeasure about the manner in which the coalition partners, particularly the Janata Dal (Secular) and Communist Party of India were treated by the CPI(M) State leadership during the run-up to the elections.

The decision to take away the Kozhikode seat from the JD(S), the Central committee had noted, had resulted in the dominant section of the JD(S) turning against the alliance.

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