By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan’s detractors within his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) are set to complain to the politburo about what they claim to be his breach of party discipline.
Sources in the state CPI-M unit’s majority faction led by state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan told IANS Thursday that written complaints against Achuthanandan’s outburst were already sent to the party office-bearers in Delhi.
The Vijayan faction was angry after Achuthanandan Wednesday told reporters here that people of Kerala had already evaluated if he was a moderate or an “extremist”.
“It is not true to say that my way of working has brought disrepute to the party. I have been working for several decades now and I don’t know how such an opinion has surfaced,” said Achuthanandan.
He was reacting to media reports that said Achuthanandan was called an extremist in terms of being a hardline communist at a three-day party meeting here.
Two senior CPI-M leaders, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac and Education Minister M.A. Baby, Thursday refused to answer questions on Achuthanandan’s statement.
Achuthanandan’s outburst is virtually the first statement to his detractors in the party since the CPI-M state conference in Kottayam in March.
For long, the party has been witnessing a war of words between the two factions. Last year both Vijayan and Achuthanandan were booted out of the politburo after they engaged in a bitter verbal duel. They were taken back in the politburo later.
The party secretariat which is to meet Aug 22 is likely to take up this issue, sources said.
The opposition Congress did not lose the opportunity to comment on affairs of the leading party in the ruling coalition.
Addressing a farmers rally in Alappuzha, State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala said the Left government had no time to govern as it was at loggerheads with the party.
“Achuthanandan has no time to take up the issues of the people but instead has time to wage a war against his detractors,” he said.