VS writes to Karat;wants Kerala CPI-M leadership to be recast

 Continuing his battle against his bete noire Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI(M) veteran V S Achuthanandan has asked the party's central leadership to immediately intervene in the state party affairs and recast the leadership.

In a letter to CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, Achuthanandan said the morale of the party cadre in Kerala had been affected, especially in the wake of the murder of former party activist T P Chandrasekharan.

The 88-year-old leader wanted the central leadership to seriously consider recasting the state leadership headed by Vijayan, according to sources close to Achuthanandan.

In  the letter, Achuthanandan said he was not interested in continuing as leader of the opposition in the prevailing scenario.

The senior leader's fresh salvo against Vijayan comes after his outburst last week comparing the present situation to that existed on the eve of the 1964 split of undivided CPI, presided by late S A Dange.

The long-drawn Vijayan-Achuthanandan feud flared up a fortnight ago in the wake of the murder of Chandrasekharan, who was expelled from the CPI(M) a few years back and floated the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP).

While CPI(M) is under shadow of suspicion with the arrest of some party activists in the case, Achuthanandan has kept on saying the state leadership should have tried to bring back rebels like Chandrasekharan.

While Vijayan dubbed the rebels as "renegades", Achuthanandan took serious objection to that and accused Vijayan of acting like an autocrat.

Though the CPI(M) had not yet come out with an official reaction to the development, senior party leader M M Lawrence said if the reports were true then it was a grave mistake on the part of Achuthanandan.

If he had any difference of opinion, he should have raised it in the Central Committee, of which he is a member,he said.