Speculation rife over CPI-M's Baby quitting assembly

CPI-M politburo member M.A. Baby's absence from the ongoing Kerala assembly session has led to speculation he wants to quit.

However, his request to resign has been vetoed out by the party's state secretariat.

Tongues have been wagging ever since his shock defeat in the Lok Sabha election from Kollam constituency.

Moreover, in his home assembly constituency Kundara that falls under the Kollam constituency, Baby, 60, finished about 6,900 votes behind winner N.K. Premachandran of the RSP. He was representing Kundara for the past eight years.

Baby, a two-time Rajya Sabha member, is into his second term as a legislator. After being a minister in the V.S. Achuthanandan cabinet (2006-11), he was elevated as a politburo member in 2012.

Incidentally, his name was one of the first to be cleared as the party's nominee and he was fielded from Kollam, a seat where the Congress was in power.

RSP, a Left ally for close to three decades, was eyeing the Kollam seat. But, the party ended the association with the Left in March after Baby's name was announced, and walked into the open arms of the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

A hurt Baby has taken the issue of quitting to the politburo, that has sent it back to the party's state unit.

When media caught up with him Friday, a clam Baby said his absence from the assembly need not be looked into as a big issue as he has been absent in the past.

But when asked if he will be in his seat Monday, pat came the answer: "I will have to check my other programmes." This "cold response" has now started another round of speculation that he is waiting for a green signal from his party to his request to quit as a legislator.