Headlines
Kannam Rajendran: New CPI Kerala state secretary
Kottayam (Kerala), March 2
After hectic
parleys, the central leadership of the Communist Party of India (CPI) on
Monday managed to avert a poll to elect its Kerala secretary securing
the unanimous selection of veteran CPI trade union leader Kannam
Rajendran for the post.
After the new 89-member state council was
elected on Monday, the central leadership, comprising national general
secretary Sudhakar Reddy besides other leaders, spoke individually to
former state minister K.E. Ismail (who had expressed his desire to
contest) and Rajendran, and prevailed upon the former to withdraw from
the fray.
Ever since the 22nd state party conference of the CPI
began here last week, it was all about hectic parleys as both Ismail and
Rajendran harboured intentions of becoming the new secretary.
The
CPI state conference is held once in three years and Rajendran's name
had come up in the last state conference also. But following the
intervention of the national leadership, compromise candidate Paniyan
Ravindran was chosen as the secretary.
CPI is the second biggest
party in the Left Opposition after the CPI-M. Of the 65 legislators (in
the 140-member Kerala assembly) in the Left opposition, CPI has 13
legislators.
The only CPI Lok Sabha member of the party in the
country is C.N. Jayadevan, who won the Thrissur Lok Sabha elections last
year.
Sixtyfour-year-old Rajendran, who hails from this
district began as a student leader and is a two-time legislator. But for
the past several years he has confined his activities to party
organisational work.
Popular media analyst S. Jayasankar said
Rajendran becoming the new secretary is the best thing that could have
happened to the CPI.
"He should have been appointed the
secretary at the last conference itself. His organisational skills are
an asset for the party and he is also a very good parliamentarian," said
Jayasankar.