Achuthanandan, Vijayan slug it out at Politburo meeting

Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and his bete noire, CPI(M) Kerala unit General Secretary Pinarai Vijayan, were at loggerheads at the special Politburo meeting of the party in New Delhi today even as senior leader Prakash Karat called for a way to end the crisis in the party’s state unit. The meeting had been convened mainly to resolve the severe infighting in the unit. The party won just four out of 20 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha polls.

The bitterness between Achuthanandan and Vijayan was very much visible on the first day of the two-day Politburo meeting. After Karat’s opening remarks on the crisis, Achuthanandan took the microphone and demanded removal of Pinarai.

“It is better if the general secretary steps down till his name is cleared from the CBI chargesheet,” he said, according to insiders. Achuthanandan had the support of leaders like senior Politburo member Sitaram Yechury and West Bengal State Secretary Biman Bose in the meeting. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is also believed to be supportive of Achuthanandan, although he didn’t attend the meeting today. As a large section of the Vijayan-controlled Kerala unit is accusing Achuthanandan of indiscipline, the chief minister refuted these charges and tried to show that he was a loyal CPI(M) soldier. “When Pinarai held his Nav Kerala Yatra, I attended the concluding rally because my party asked me to do so. This shows I am a disciplined party man,” he said.

When his turn came, Vijayan asked the party leadership to “take action against VS on disciplinary grounds.” He cited the state committee report on the poll debacle and pointed out that as many as three pages of the report spoke about how the party suffered because of Achuthanandan.

In his opening remarks, Karat strongly pressed for a solution to end the crisis. “We must find a solution to solve this problem. Our party is suffering because of the situation in Kerala”, Karat said in the closed-door meeting.

The marathon fight between the camps had taken an ugly turn after Vijayan was accused in the multi-crore SNC Lavalin scam.

While the dominating section of the party has so far backed Vijayan, terming the CBI charges as “politically motivated”, Achutanandan is receiving support from leaders from other states who feel he alone can’t be punished. If Achuthanandan has to step down, Pinarai too should be removed from his chair, they say.