THRISSUR: Steeping the cultural capital of Kerala in crimson, the four-day CPM state conference kickstarted here on Thursday. In an almost emotional gathering heaving with memories of Communist martyrs, veteran leader and party founding member V S Achuthanandan hoisted the flag at V V Dakshinamoorthy Nagar. General secretary Sitaram Yechury, along with politburo members Prakash Karat, S Ramachandran Pillai, Pinarayi Vijayan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and MA Baby paid tributes at the Martyr’s Column.
After hoisting the flag, VS urged the cadre to resist planned attempts by certain vested interests against the Left Government. The nonagenarian leader hoped the conference would find a place in history.
He pointed out the need to strengthen the Left and secular forces. Along with this, the Left Government, which is going ahead with its efforts to create a new Kerala, should be further strengthened. Such matters would be discussed and decisions would be taken at the meet, he said.
The four-day meet is being chaired by a presidium led by central committee member E P Jayarajan. P K Sainaba, K Somaprasad, Mohammed Riyaz and Jaick C Thomas will be the other members of the presidium.
In the morning, the meet paid tributes to various personalities and former leaders who passed away after the last conference. In addition to the presidium, other committees for the four-day conference too were selected.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan released the first volume of ‘The history of Communist party in Kerala’ by handing over a copy to S Ramachandran Pillai. State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan elaborated on the project to bring out the history of the party in five volumes. The party had adopted a different method in preparing the book, said Ramachandran Pillai.
“Historical documents were collected from across the state with the help of the masses and these have been used in the publication of the book,” he said.
Kodiyeri presented the organisational report. Group discussions in the report - by dividing into various district units - were also held in the evening. The general discussions on the report will begin on Friday.
As per the schedule, there will be a nine-hour 20 minutes discussion on the report in the next two days.