THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior CPM leader and Varkala MLA V Joy has been elected as the party's Thiruvananthapuram district secretary. The change of guard comes in the backdrop of incumbent Anavoor Nagappan being inducted into the party state secretariat last March.
The decision to elevate V Joy was taken during a meeting of the state committee members from the district at the AKG Centre on Thursday morning. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, state secretary MV Govindan and other state committee members attended the meeting.
At the meeting, the state leadership suggested V Joy as the new district secretary. Later at the party district committee meet, senior leader Kadakampally Surendran proposed Joy's name, which was backed by BP Murali.
A two-time MLA, Joy is now party state committee member. In 2016, he won from Varkala defeating Varkala Kahar of Congress and later in 2021, he won against BRM Shafeer of Congress.
Joy had earlier served as Thiruvananthapuram district panchayt member, Azhoor panchayat member, Chirayinkeezh block panchayat member, SFI district president and Kerala University Senate member.
Though Anavoor was elected to the state secretariat last March, he continued as district secretary till now. With inner-party issues in the district, and a slew of allegations against the leadership, there was widespread criticism against the delay in electing a new district secretary. The letter row involving Mayor Arya Rajendan and the alcohol and drug-related allegations against DYFI and SFI leaders had put the party leaders on the defensive. Following this, the state leadership had intervened to initiate action against the accused leaders.
Though a number of names were doing the rounds for party district secretary, V Joy and KS Sunil Kumar were the top contenders. While the state leadership and the Chief Minister were in favour of bringing V Joy, existing district leadership was keener on young leader KS Sunil Kumar making it to the top.