In an extraordinary development, Kerala CPI(M)’s secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and Central committee member VS Achuthanandan on Thursday turned the venue of the party’s State conference into their battle zone by confronting each other openly. Pinarayi attacked Achuthanandan by saying that he was not yet prepared to stop violating party discipline. Achuthanandan shot back by rejecting the charge “with the contempt it deserves”.
Holding his last Press conference as the State party chief, Pinarayi said in Alappuzha that a State secretariat meet held at the venue of the conference had unanimously adopted a resolution against Achuthanandan. The State meet of the party in preparation for the 21st CPI(M) Congress to be held in April is beginning in Alappuzha on Friday.
He said that the secretariat had dismissed a note Achuthanandan had written to the Central leadership describing the rightist deviations of the Pinarayi-headed State leadership, adding that the veteran leader’s criticisms had already been rejected by the party. That the note got leaked to the media proved that Achuthanandan was continuing his anti-party activities, he alleged.
But Achuthanandan was in no mood to relent. “I heard that he read out something against me in front of the Press. I reject it with the contempt it deserves. I had given the note to the Politbureau and it is their reply I am waiting for,” Achuthanandan said. Pinarayi and Achuthanandan have been waging their war for the past 13 years.