Binoy Viswam (68), Rajya Sabha member and intellectual face of the CPI, has been elected as the interim secretary of the party’s Kerala unit  on Sunday. The election follows the demise of incumbent secretary Kanam Rajendran who breathed his last on Friday evening.’ Binoy Viswam, an internationally respected face of the CPI, has been functioning from New Delhi as the main strategist of the party in formulating national and global affairs.

D Raja, the CPI’s national secretary who presided over the Kerala State council meeting of the party at Kottayam immediately after the last rites of Rajendran said that Viswam would be the interim secretary of the party till a full time secretary is elected.

Raja himself wanted Viswam to be confined to Kerala as the latter was seen as a potential threat to his continuation as national secretary. Raja is also eyeing for the post of the national convenor of the INDI alliance, the rainbow alliance being formed to take on the challenges posed by the BJP.

Immediately after his election, Viswam told media persons that his top priority would be to demolish and destroy the RSS and the BJP. “They are the biggest threats to the country and our paramount task is to finish them off,” said Viswam. He said that he would continue his fight against the Hindutva politics from Kerala itself.

Interestingly, the new secretary remained silent on Congress and its opposition to the chief minister’s Nava Kerala Sadass. Binoy Viswam is a poet and writer of repute.