The Hindu : CPI(M) panel meet begins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

CPI(M) panel meet begins

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 13. A three-day meeting of the CPI(M) State committee began here today amidst reports of growing schism in the party.

The committee has been convened primarily to discuss selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. However, questions of ideology and criticism about the People's Plan Campaign are also expected to figure in it.

The party State secretariat had concluded its two-day meeting here on Thursday after a lengthy discussion on organisational issues and selection of candidates. The CPI(M) general secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, and the party politburo members, Prakash Karat, E. Balanandan, S. Ramachandran Pillai, E.K. Nayanar and V.S. Achuthanandan, had attended the meeting with the objective of assisting the State leadership to sort out the organisational issues and to select the party candidates.

The outcome of the deliberations would be known only after the conclusion of the State committee meeting, that too only if the committee decides to issue a communiqué to clarify matters. The names of persons to be fielded in the elections would be announced only later.

The deliberations of the State committee could be stormy. But the way the inner party discussions progress would depend on how the national leadership views the ongoing debate and its implications for the party in Kerala.

The party Central leadership is understood to have expressed it displeasure about the manner in which inner-party issues were sought to be raised in public and ``indiscretion in the action of some of the State leaders.''

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