By IANS
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Saturday cracked the whip and suspended Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and his rival Pinarayi Vijayan from the politburo for attacking each other publicly.
A meeting of the politburo here took the harsh decision in a desperate bid to rein in the two top leaders of Kerala who have openly denounced each other in recent days, embarrassing a party that has prided itself for discipline.
But the party made it clear that Achuthanandan will remain the chief minister while Vijayan will continue to be the powerful secretary of the CPI-M's Kerala unit.
The two have been at loggerhead for years, and the party's leadership had been struggling to patch up their differences but without success.
On Saturday, the politburo, the party's highest decision making body of which both Achuthanandan and Vijayan are members, moved a resolution after studying "certain remarks and criticism regarding each other (made) to the media".
CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat read out the resolution to journalists.
"The open criticism and remarks made by the two senior leaders in Kerala have violated the norms of the party and the clear directive of the politburo and the central committee that the state party leadership should not air their differences publicly.
"The politburo concluded that such behaviour is unacceptable from members of the politburo and (that) action should be taken. The politburo decided to suspend V.S. Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijyana from the politburo and place the matter before the central committee for its consideration."
The politburo statement said: "The two comrades will continue to discharge all their other party responsibilities. All other matters pertaining to Kerala unit will be discussed by the politburo with the Kerala state committee."