ALAPPUZHA: Senior Communist leader and the founder of JSS, K R Gouri, is all set to rejoin the CPM. CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the party central leadership had approved the rejoining of Gouri and the merger meet would be held in Alappuzha on August 19.
Kodiyeri made the announcement after visiting Gouri at her house here on Friday. The return of Gouri to the CPM comes after 21 years of expulsion from the party. Talks on the merger of the JSS’ Gouriamma faction with the CPM had
started one-and-a-half-years after she severed ties with the UDF. The CPM state leadership had invited her to the party many times but she and her party leaders demanded that the JSS be inducted as a coalition partner. But the CPM leadership rejected the demand.
Kodiyeri said the CPM had not yet decided as to what post should be given her after the merger. The party state committee will decide those matters, he said, and added the CPM would give a prominent place to Gouri and her party leaders in the party. The ties between the JSS and the UDF worsened after the Assembly elections in 2011. The UDF allegedly sidelined the party after all the JSS candidates were defeated in the election.