THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM state secretariat on Saturday accepted the politburo decision to field opposition leader V S Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan in the forthcoming Assembly.
Earlier there were reports that Achuthanandan’s name did not figure in the list of candidates submitted by Palakkad district secretariat, but later in the evening the state secretariat accepted the politburo decision making the picture clear. The 93-year-old leader will contest from Malampuzha constituency for the third consecutive time.
The PB decision was placed before the secretariat by party general secretary Sitaram Yechury and adopted. Pinarayi Vijayan will contest from Dharmadom in Kannur district. Apart from him five other state secretariat members will be in the fray Thomas Isaac (Alappuzha), E P Jayarajan (Mattanur), A K Balan (Tharoor), M M Mony (Udambanchola) and T P Rakakrishnan (Perambra).
CITU state secretary Elamaram Kareem whose name was recommended by Kozhikode district committee has been excluded from the list of candidates.
Earlier there were reports that the Palakkad district secretariat had recommended the name of district CITU president A Prabhakaran for Malampuzha seat.
But that suggestion was not accepted by the secretariat which complied with the politburo decision to field Achuthanandan. The politburo had earlier made it clear that there would not be a repeat of 2006 and 2011 when huge controversy had erupted in connection with the candidature of Achuthanandan.
On both occasions the state leadership had kept Achuthanandan out of the candidates list. It was after the politburo intervention that the veteran entered the electoral fray. The state secretariat will meet again on March 16 to discuss election campaign strategy besides candidates.
