KOCHI: The CPM district committee on Saturday expelled K M George from the Mulanthuruthy local committee, following allegations of anti-party activities, informed district secretary C M Dinesh Mani.
Earlier, the Mulathuruthy local committee of the party had decided to expel four members, including George. O M Mani, A A Sunil and V P Mani are the other members against whom the local committee sought action.
The decision was taken at an emergency meeting held on Friday, and was forwarded to the district committee for ratification.
The decision to expel George was taken after section of the party workers, including those facing disciplinary action, convened a convention on Sunday. The meeting was expected to discuss the functioning of the party leadership. However, before the conduct of the convention, they openly criticised the activities of the party.
Factionalism has been growing in the Mulanthuruthy unit of the party for quite some time, and the district committee was forced to take a decision before the convention was held.
The issues in the Mulanthuruthy local committee that led to George’s expulsion started when he was demoted from the local committee to the branch committee. It is learned that the local committee has asked George to discontinue his gold loan business to continue in the party.
When he refused to comply with the directive, the local committee decided not to renew his membership. Later, following the intervention of the district committee, George’s membership was renewed, but he was demoted to the branch committee.
This resulted in factional feud in the Mulanthuruthy local committee. George alleged that the local committee leadership was hand-in-glove with illegal sand miners and the land mafia. He also alleged that the local committee was not able to organise any protest against the authorities of the panchayat, ruled by the Congress party, which according to him was due to an unholy nexus between the CPM leaders and the Congress party.
George said that the gold loan business was run by his wife, and it was functioning as per the norms of the Money Lending Act. The rebels, who belong to the VS faction, have demanded the resignation of the local committee secretary. It is alleged that the rebels were behind the posters appeared in Mulanthuruthy against the official faction.