Crisis in Kerala CPI-M deepens

Achuthanandan's letter seeking overhaul of the party leadership in the state headed by Vijayan has not only embarrassed the state and central leaders but left the rank and file confused.

Though Vijayan last night dubbed the "letter bomb" as just another "media creation", Achuthanandan has refrained from denying the reports that he had written such a letter to CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat.

The latest turn in the long-running feud between the two leaders has come at a time when CPI(M) is locked in a grim assembly bye-election from Neyyattinkara.

The bypoll has been caused by resignation of the assembly seat by R Selvaraj who won in 2011 on a CPI-M ticket. After stunning the party two months ago, Selvaraj is back in the seat as a Congress candidate.

To the LDF's discomfiture, the Congress-led UDF has been going to town with the CPIM's internal squabbles.

A founder leader of the CPI(M), Achuthanandan has reportedly expressed his reluctance to continue as the Opposition leader in the state if the party central leadership refused to intervene in the state affairs.

Achuthanandan, sulking after he failed to get into the politburo in the recently held party congress, was waiting for a chance to strike back at the state leadership.

He has seized on the recent murder of T P Chandrasekharan, leader of Revolutionary Marxist Party, a former CPI-M activist from Onchiyam in Kozhikode district, after which the CPI-M has come under shadow of doubt.(More)