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CPI(M) meet to decide dissenters' fate

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Aasha Khosa New Delhi
The fate of Kerala's two top ruling party leaders "" chief minister V S Achutanandan and state-unit chief Penirayi Vijayan, who had been suspended from the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for infighting, is to be decided at the three-day meeting of the party's central committee beginning here tomorrow.
 
The 85-member central committee, which has veterans like former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjeet as members, is CPI(M)'s supreme elected body that meets occasionally to take key policy decisions.
 
Party sources said Achutanandan is likely to skip the first day's meet, while Penirayi would be coming. After the party's politburo had found both the leaders guilty of squabbling and breaching discipline, and suspended them, the matter was referred to the central committee.
 
The CPI(M)'s central committee has powers to review the decision "" either revoke their suspension or set the time frame for their suspension, sources said. Interestingly, although the state CPI(M) had endorsed the suspension of two leaders, the rivalries between their respective camps are yet to end.
 
The central committee, party sources said, would mainly fix the schedule of the party's organisational elections and also the venue of the CPI(M) Congress, which, in fact, is the electoral college for the election of the central committee.
 
The CPI(M) is likely to discuss the situation in West Bengal where the leftists are faced with a dilemma of industrialisation versus rights of farmers. The party's strained relations with the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh over the land rights issue is also likely to be discussed.
 
The presidential elections, in which the CPI(M) and other Left parties have sided with the UPA, are also likely to figure in the meeting as would be the forthcoming elections for the post of vice-president.

 
 

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First Published: Jun 24 2007 | 12:00 AM IST

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