THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM central committee meeting in Trivandrum in January first week is likely to discuss the future of Power Minister M.M. Mani, accused of murder. A section of central leadership wants the state leaders to take a call on the issue since the matter has been raised by none other than veteran leader V.S. Achuthanandan. Going by the past experience, one could even expect the veteran leader to circulate a similar letter among the central committee members for a discussion.
The party central leadership also needs to clarify its stand on allowing people facing murder charges to continue in office. During SNC Lavalin case, former general secretary Prakash Karat had categorically stated that Pinarayi Vijayan would have stepped down even the post of a panchayat president. However, the state leadership has already made it clear that there was no question of removing Mani since the case was foisted by the Oommen Chandy Government.
Moreover, it was only based on the speech made by Mani which indicated the political intention behind booking the former Idukki district secretary. It may be recalled that the party had only expelled K.C. Ramachandran one of the three party leaders convicted in the T.P. Chandrashekharan murder case. Despite pressure from VS, the other two convicts Panoor area committee meber P.K. Kunjananthan and Trouser Manoj were not expelled from the party.
