People's Democracy

19TH STATE CONFERENCE

Party Marches Forward In Kerala

THE 19th state conference of Kerala CPI(M) state committee was held at Kottayam during February 11-14, 2008. Held for the first time at Kottayam, the state conference drew the attention of Party workers and sympathizers as also its detractors. Kottayam was the nerve centre of the 'liberation struggle' against the first communist ministry in Kerala led by E M S Namboodiripad. A lot of changes have occurred in the political complexion of the district since then as was demonstrated by the warm response of the people there to various activities in preparation of the state conference, including a series of seminars held in various parts of the district.

The state conference was inaugurated by CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on the morning of February 11. In his speech he pointed out that the internal situation in the Party in Kerala has changed substantially since the Malappuram conference when factionalism was rampant. Since then leaders and rank and file in the Party in the state have worked to overcome this state of affairs and the central leadership has helped them in this endeavour. Karat expressed the hope that the Kerala contingent of CPI(M), which is the biggest state unit of the Party, would do its best to strengthen the Party and widen its base in order to fulfill its role in the developing political situation in the country.

CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan then placed the work report of the state unit for discussion. He pointed out that the Party had grown politically and organisationally since the last conference achieving big victories in both local bodies and assembly elections. The state committee under the guidance of all India leadership was able to fight back factionalism successfully. Now factionalism was not at all a threat to the Party in the state.

In the ensuing discussion on the work report, a total of 56 delegates participated. The report was then unanimously adopted by the conference. The conference also adopted over a dozen resolutions on various issues.

On the concluding day i.e. February 14, the conference unanimously elected the new state committee. The strength of the state committee was increased from 80 to 85. A panel for 84 names was placed before the conference, which was adopted unanimously. One more person will be nominated by the state committee later.

Former central committee member T K Ramakrishnan, veteran trade union leader C Kannan, former NGO union leader T K Balan, newly elected member of Kerala assembly Mathai Chacko, former district committee secretary of Thrissur K P Aravindaksahan and Alappuzha district committee secretary P Sudhakaran had passed away since the last conference. N N Krishnadas, MP, had been removed from state committee earlier. K Padmanabhan, K Mohanan and Peroorkada Sadasivan were dropped due to ill health. All other comrades continue in the state committee.

Eleven comrades were newly elected to the committee. They include K K Shailaja and T N Seema, secretary and president of the state unit of the AIDWA, P Sathidevi, MP, C K Saseendran, newly elected Wayanad district committee secretary, Katakampally Surendran, newly elected Thiruvananthapuram district committee secretary, K Radhakrishnan, Kerala assembly speaker, T K Hamza, MP, P Sreeramakrishnan, all India president DYFI, K K Ragesh, SFI all India general secretary, I V Das, Deshabhimani weekly editor and K Varadarajan, Deshabhimani Thiruvananthapuram unit manager.

After the conclusion of the delegates session there was a big procession in which 50,000 red volunteers and enthusiastic people participated. This was followed by a big rally which was addressed by Prakash Karat, Pinarayi Vijayan, V S Achuthanandan and others.

Below is the list of the newly elected state committee members:

V S Achuthanandan, Pinarayi Vijayan, Paloli Muhammed Kutty, M A Baby, P Karunakaran, P K Gurudasan, P K Sreemathi, A Vijayaraghavan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, E Balanandan, E P Jayarajan, M C Josaphine, T Sivadasamenon, Vaikom Viswan, V V Dakshinamoorthy, Thomas Isaac, A K Balan, M V Govindan, K Kunhiraman, A K Narayanan, T Govindan, C K P Padmanabhan, P Sasi, P Jayarajan, M V Jayarajan, K P Sahadevan, P A Muhammed, M Kelappan, Elamaram Kareem, N K Radha, T P Ramakrishnan, K Saithalikutty, Ummer Master, P K Sainaba, M Chandran, P Unni, C T Krishnan, K K Mamakutty, C O Poulose, P R Rajan, Babyjohn, K Chandranpillai, C M Dinesh Mony, K N Raveendranath, S Sarma, K M Sudhakaran, M M Lawrance, Gopi Kottamurikkal, Sarojini Balanandan, M M Mony, K K Jayachandran, K J Thomas, V R Bhaskaran, K Anandagopan, R Unnikrishnapillai, P K Chandranandan, G Sudhakaran, C K Sadasivan, C S Sujatha, M K Bhaskaran, K Rajagopal, P Rajendran, J.Mercikutty Amma, K N Balagopal, B Raghavan, M Vijayakumar, Pirappankode Murali, R Parameswaran Pilla, Anathalavattom Anandan, Anavoor Nagappan, S Rajendran, C P Narayanan, P Rajeev, C K Saseendran, Kadakampalli Surendran, I V Das, P Sreeramakrishnan, K K Ragesh, K K Sailaja Teacher, T N Seema, P Satheedevi, K Varadarajan, T K Hamza, K Radhakrishnan.

(More reports to follow)