VS walks out of party meet

Cut up with the state leadership for isolating and running him down, CPI(M) veteran and former chief minister V S Achuthanandan walked out of the party's state conference here today.
Though the dramatic act instantly fuelled speculations that he might take some hard decision, signals emanating from the party pointed to the possibility of the central leadership intervening to request the nonagenarian leader to desist from precipitating the crisis in the state unit.
According to sources close to Achuthanandan, he conveyed his feelings to the central leaders present there before walking out alone from the party meet, where he had come under attack from delegates loyal to the state leadership, controlled by state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

From the meeting venue, he drove straight to his home on the outskirts of the town and declined to meet mediapersons who had thronged there.
Achuthananthan's supporters gathered at his residence and shouted slogans hailing him.
The party meet had a turbulent start with the state secretariat coming out with a virtual indictment of the senior leader for shooting off a letter to the central leadership castigating party affairs under his bete noire Vijayan.

The resolution adopted by the party accused the founder leader of having stooped to the level of a "factionalist" and betraying "anti-party mindset" through repeated breach of discipline.

Achuthanandan had reacted sharply to the charges and the way they were made open through a press meet by Vijayan.
The state leadership, however, justified the decision to publicise the resolution, arguing it was necessary to clear the confusion created by Achuthanandan's letter and its leak to the media.
In his letter, dubbed by political circles as a "dissenting note", Achuthanandan had cited serious lapses on the part of the state leadership on a host of issues, including retention in the party two persons convicted for murder of Marxist rebel T P Chandrasekharan.
He also mentioned the damage suffered by the party due to alienation of LDF allies like Janata Dal, tactical alliance struck with the PDP led by Abdul Nasser Madani in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and the party's "failure" to lead a strong and sustained stir against the UDF Government.