The Hindu : Kerala News : Veliyam Bhargavan re-elected CPI Kerala unit chief

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala

Veliyam Bhargavan re-elected CPI Kerala unit chief

Special Correspondent

THRISSUR: The four-day Kerala State conference of the Communist Party of India (CPI) concluded here on Tuesday with a massive rally and red volunteers’ march after electing veteran Communist leader Veliyam Bhargavan as State secretary for the fourth consecutive term.

The election passed off smoothly as there was no name before the reconstituted 89-member State council. Mr. Bhargavan himself later told reporters that he had agreed to serve for another term following pressure from all quarters. He would hold office for the full term of three years or till his age permitted him to perform his duties as party State secretary.

Mr. Bhargavan, who entered politics as a student activist, became State secretary of the party in 1998 and was re-elected to the post at the Palakkad and Kottayam State conferences of the party. He had served as member of the Kerala Assembly in 1957 and 1960 and played a pivotal role in the forging and sustenance of the coalition arrangement in Kerala, initially with the Congress as a component of the United Front (UF) and later with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as the alliance leader. Mr. Bhargavan said the conference had ended on a stirring note after discussions on a variety of issues concerning the party, the State and the Left Democratic Front government. He denied reports that he had criticized Education Minister M.A. Baby in the course of his address to the conference and said he did not wish to enter into a debate with Devaswom Minister G. Sudhakaran over the running of the Travancore Devaswom Board.

He said the newly constituted State council would meet on March 14and 15 to elect a new State executive committee and State assistant secretaries.

As prescribed in the party constitution, 20 per cent of the newly constituted State council were new faces.

In separate resolutions, the conference appealed to the State government to protect cashew, handloom, fisheries, toddy and beedi industries, offer financial support to the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation and to implement the abkari policy for 2008-09.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala