The three-day firefighting exercise of the state CPM leadership to quell the dissidence within the party in Mundur ended on Thursday on an optimistic note.
CPM politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who has been camping in Palakkad for the last three days, attended the Mundur area committee meet which met on Thursday. Fourteen of the 16-member committee including the dissidents who walked out earlier attended the meeting.
Gokuldas, the former area secretary of Mundur who has been demoted to Kongad local committee, was asked not to attend the meet. Zulfiqar Ali who was admitted to a hospital in Coimbatore also did not attend.
CPM sources said that Kodiyeri Balakrishnan attended the meeting for 10 minutes only. Kodiyeri said that the CPM state secretariat meet to be held on September 24 in Thiruvananthapuram will take a decision regarding Gokuldas. The demotion of Gokuldas was on the basis of an inquiry by a two-member party commission which held him guilty in the suicide of his wife. The dissidents had held a convention in which majority of the area committee members and presidents of the panchayats participated. This was the reason for the conciliation worked out by the CPM leadership. Kodiyeri informed the area committee that an area rally will be held in Mundur on September 25. General Body meeting of the Mundur area committee will be held at the Municipal Town hall in Palakkad on September 26, said CPM sources.
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan rounded up his three-day visit to Palakkad on Thursday. On Tuesday, he attended the district secretariat meet and on Wednesday, the district committee meet.