Fratricidal war in Kerala exposes chinks in Left armour

The state conference of the pradesh unit of CPM will be crucial as the two factions lead by two politburo members "" V S Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan "" have locked horns.

When the 12 out of the 14 district conferences had been completed, the Achuthanandan faction has a clear edge among the rank and file of the party and two crucial district conferences "" Kannur and Ernakulam "" are now on.

Though ideological and personal differences in the party has been there for a long time now, all of a sudden the issue has become a hot subject of the media in the state.

In the Thiruvananthapuram district conference Pinarayi Vijayan had made a frontal attack against the V S Achuthanandan faction and he repeated his anger and anguish in the public meeting too though in a diplomatic manner.

V S Achuthanandan faction has got a clear majority of 40 delegates in the state conference and the rival faction criticising that they (VS faction) are covertly trying to take total control of the party by ousting some of the top leaders of the Pinarayi faction from the state committee.

Their main target are M A Baby, a central committee member, and Dr Thomas Issac, MLA, secretariat member of the state unit. Interestingly the issue has got another dimension: who will be the next chief minister of Kerala "" Achuthanandan or Pinaryi Vijayan.

It is now clear that LDF will win a thumping majority in the next assembly elections as UDF has an ugly face at present. Achuthanandan was the front-runner for the CM's post in the elections in 1996.

But he failed in his assembly constituency though it is a CPM stronghold and E K Nayanar became the chief minister. This time too he is the front-runner. But the factional feud has made the whole political drama more intriguing.

Incidentally, both Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan were hand in hand in ousting the CITU faction from the party at the Palakkad conference few years ago lead by K N Raveendranath, M M Lawrence, V B Cherian and others with the covert support of E Balanandan, another politburo member.

But they have departed now and CITU faction, though they have supporters in some districts like Eranakulam supports the Achuthandan faction.

Ideological issues like fourth world doctrine by Dr M P Parameswaran is also a subject of discussion in the district conferences of the party.

Pinrayi Vijayan's soft attitude towards Muslim League and the secret decisions of the former LDF government to save P K Kunhalikkutty in the ice cream parlour sex scandal are also subjects of discussion. But it is definite that Achuthanandan has got a clear advantage among the party's rank and file with his hard and conventional attitudes on many poitical issues.

But think-tanks like Thomas Issac and M A Baby are able to take advantage over any unpleasant situations and this make the Malappuram state conference very crucial in the future of CPM and the state unit in particular.