KOCHI: The CPI district conference which concluded here on Monday morning re-elected P Raju as the party's district chief for a second back-to-back term. Though Raju had contested against the official candidate last time to emerge victorious, this time around there were no other contenders in the fray for the top party post. The conference also elected a 51-member district council and six candidate members.
In the elections to the 51-member district panel, nine rebels were initially in the fray against the official panel. After the intervention of the leadership, three of the rebels withdrew from the contest. The remaining six rebel candidates, though, were defeated in the elections. The district conference was originally supposed to conclude on Sunday evening. However, the meeting concluded only on Monday morning after the elections were held .T Reghuvaran and M D Antony, who crossed over to CPI from CPM, figure in the panel.