AITUC leader Meenankal Kumar walks out of CPI state conference

ALAPPUZHA: AITUC Thiruvananthapuram district secretary Meenankal Kumar, walking out of the state conference in protest against his exclusion from the CPI state council, sowed seeds of discord within the organisation.

When Secretary Binoy Viswam announced the list of state council members provided by the district group, Meenankal Kumar immediately informed the leadership about his dissent and walked out. The leadership explained that some of the previous members were excluded to comply with the directive to include 20 per cent new members. The exclusion comes after allegations were made against Meenankal Kumar for leaking party-related news.

Meenankal Kumar, who is also a district executive member, has been a member of the state council since the 2017 Malappuram session. The crackdown on leaders came after the number of council members was increased from 100 to 103 as part of the decision to increase the number of members of the state council. While many new faces from most districts won seats in the state council, senile leaders with alleged shortcomings were excluded. Three new faces from Kollam won seats in the state council. S. Buhari, A. Manmathan Nair, Liju Jamal, Thiruvananthapuram Municipality Deputy Mayor P.K. Raju and A.S. Rice were included in the state council as candidate members.

G.S. Jayalal from Kollam, who was expelled from the state council before the last party state conference following the controversy related to the cooperative hospital in Kollam, was not considered this time either. New faces, Pottesseri Manikandan and Shajahan from Palakkad, also joined the council. D. Suresh Babu from Alappuzha was also excluded. C.A. Arunkumar, Bimal Roy and M.K. Uthaman were included in the vacancy caused by the death of former council member Chandran Unnithan.