Indicating that the choice of the Kerala CPI(M) for the position of chief ministerial candidate in the 2016 Assembly election may most probably be Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan and not nonagenarian Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, the State party leadership has decided to make former the captain of its all-Kerala pre-election yatra.
As per the decision taken by the State secretariat of the party the other day, the name, slogan and other details of the march will be decided at the State committee meeting to be held on December 7 and 8. The march, to be held from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram covering all the 140 Assembly constituencies, will start by the middle of January.
It is particularly interesting to note that the State secretariat’s decision to make Pinarayi the leader of the Kerala march has come just a week after the statement by general secretary Sitaram Yechuri that Achuthanandan’s advanced age was no bar for contesting polls, generating a feeling that the central leadership was in favour of making him the left’s CM candidate.
However, it is said that the State secretariat’s decision to make Pinarayi the captain of the march has been taken with the knowledge of the central leadership. Achuthanandan himself had a few days ago expressed – though indirectly – his readiness to contest the Assembly election to be held in April-May next and to lead the party-led lDF’s campaigning.
Though a decision had already been taken by the party to hold an all-Kerala Yatra in preparation for the Assembly election, there was confusion in the CPI(M) over who should lead it. As per normal procedure, such a march is to be led by the State secretary. However, State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan himself made the proposal to make Pinarayi the march’s captain.
CPI(M)-watchers are of the opinion that Kodiyeri was to lead the Yatra as per the earlier understanding in the party but the State leadership chose Pinarayi for the job with the obvious intention of giving out a message that Pinarayi himself would be the leader of the lDF in the Assembly election.