KOCHI: The feud between the CPM and CPI leadership in the Kochi corporation has taken an ugly turn with both parties sticking to their stand over sharing the post of development standing committee chairperson. While the CPI claimed that a post-sharing agreement was made for the particular post, the CPM maintained that no such agreement exists.
Interestingly, the LDF constituents have locked horns over the issue with just a day left for the annual corporation budget. A meeting of district-level leaders of both parties convened by the CPM at the Lenin Centre in Kaloor on Friday failed to break the impasse.
A top leader of the CPM in the district said they had given the deputy mayor’s post to the CPI based on earlier discussions. “Had there been an agreement for post-sharing, we wouldn’t need to take a firm stand. There was no such agreement. Moreover, we came to power assuring people that there would be no post-sharing, like what the Congress did during the previous term in the corporation,” the source said. He said the CPI has an agenda to upset the corporation administration.
“CPM has the support of 33 councillors in the 74-member council. Whereas CPI has four councillors, including the deputy mayor. CPM has only two standing committee chairpersons out of the eight committees. How can we give two prominent post to the CPI? Some logic needs to be applied while raising such demands. Those who are creating confusion have a special agenda,” said the source.
CPI leader C A Shakkeer, whom the party CPI is planning to depute as the development standing committee chairperson replacing P R Renish of the CPM, said an agreement had been reached during council formation. “Do you think a party like CPI would come up with such a stand if there was no agreement? There was an agreement to hand over the post to the CPI after three years. But they are not ready to accept it now,” Shakkeer said.
Meanwhile, Mayor M Anilkumar said the issue will not affect the budget. It is also learnt that the CPI will hold a meeting on Monday to discuss the same.