THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At the new State Council meeting on Monday, the Communist Party of India (CPI) unanimously elected Kanam Rajendran to serve as the state secretary for Kerala.
After N E Balram and P K Vasudevan Nair, Kanam is the third state secretary of the CPI to hold the position for three consecutive terms. After being overwhelmingly selected as the CPI state secretary, Kanam addressed the delegates and said, "The conference revealed that the CPI is not riven by discord as certain quarters had assumed and is a cohesive one."
The district chapters were under severe orders from the state leadership to adhere to the 75-year-old age restriction for Council elections. The national leadership also made the same clarification. After the party implemented the age requirement, CPI removed senior leader C Divakaran from the state council on Monday.
His name wasn't on the list that the Thiruvananthapuram district council had suggested. Many party members, including those who support the two leaders, claimed that the party was in crisis as a result of Divakaran's opposition to the application of age requirements in his public remarks soon before the conference and KE Ismail's strategy. With this, the anti-Kanam faction's resolve to launch a front against the state secretary was weakened.
The representative from the Ernakulam district, who was opposed to both leaders, was questioned by a colleague from the same area, which is what sparked the conflict yesterday. It was said that the senior leaders' reactions, which had the full backing of the party, damaged the conference's reputation.
K Prakash Babu, the state assistant secretary, told the media that the Central Council's age restriction had not changed.
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