THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The findings of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the torching of P Krishna Pillai memorial in Alappuzha, that CPM and DYFI activists were behind the attack is likely to aggravate the factional feuds in the party even as the party is readying for conferences ahead of the party congress.
Since the state conference is scheduled to be held in Alappuzha in February, it will be a harrowing time for VS confidants during the area, district and state conferences as the persons accused were VS loyalists.
The SIT report submitted in the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Alappuzha naming five CPM and DYFI workers as accused has arraigned DYFI former leader Latheesh B Chandran, who had served in the personal staff of V S Achuthanandan during his tenure as the Chief Minister, as the main accused. It has turned out to be a major setback for the VS faction which is fighting hard to retain whatever space is left for it in the district.
CPM on Thursday expelled Kannarkad former local secretary P Sabu, the second accused, and member Pramod from the party following the submission of the report.
CPM district secretary C B Chandrababu has said that the party has expelled Kannarkad local committee member P Sabu and party member Pramod from the party in connection with the attack. Chandrababu said that Latheesh was expelled from the party in 2006 for anti-party activities. The two others don’t have party membership, he said.
The Chelikandathil House which was used by Krishna Pillai, the founder leader of the Communist Party in the state, was a hideout where he died of a snake bite on August 19, 1948.
The CPM and the CPI were jointly protecting the monument as a precious possession. This unfortunate and unthinkable incident was the latest in a series of incidents through which the intense factional feud in the party came to the fore.
According to sources in the CPM, a section of the party wanted to jeopardize the prospect of R Nazar, CPM district secretariat member, from emerging as a candidate for the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency. ‘’The faction having allegiance to Achuthanandan did not want Nazar to be the candidate. They wanted to scuttle his chance of getting the party nod for the LS ticket. The feud that was plaguing the Kanjikuzhi area had its reflection in the incidents,’’ a party source in Alappuzha told ‘Express’.
However, when contacted, CPM Alappuzha district secretariat member Saji Cheriyan told this paper that they had decided to expel Sabu and Pramod from the party. ‘’We are attending Ambalappuzha area conference of the party. We haven’t discussed other issues in detail,’’ he said.
CPM Expels Two Members
Alappuzha: CPM district secretary C B Chandrababu has said that the party has expelled its Kannarkad local committee member P Sabu and party worker Pramod from the primary party membership, in connection with the attack on the P Krishna Pillai memorial. The Crime Branch has submitted a report in the court and has mentioned the names of both the members, the secretary said in a press release issued here on Thursday. Further action will be taken against them after the Crime Branch inquiry report comes out, it stated. Latheesh was expelled from the party in 2006 for anti-party activities. The two others have no membership in the party, and Deepu is said to be a BMS activists now, he said in the release.
Good Response to Film on Krishna Pillai
Palakkad: Anil V Nagendran’s film ‘Vasanthathinte Kanal Vazhikal’, a biopic on the life of the late communist leader P Krishna Pillai, has been receiving great response from the public as it enters its third week. Though, the film was released during the Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission withheld its release on a complaint that the film would favourably influence voters and give undue leverage to the Left in the election. The film had also courted controversy after a Left-leaning television channel expressed unwillingness to telecast it. “This is the rerelease, and people have received the movie with both hands. This movie is not politically biased. A chapter in history has been meticulously crafted without losing its vigour and sheen,” said Anil.