CPI state secretariat formed after 10-year gap; PP Suneer and Sathyan Mokeri made state assistant secretaries

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPI has elected PP Suneer and Sathyan Mokeri as state assistant secretaries. An 11-member state secretariat and a 25-member state executive have been formed. This was announced at the state council meeting held on Wednesday. The state secretariat has been reconstituted after a gap of 10 years.

Ministers K Rajan, GR Anil, P Prasad and J Chinju Rani have been included in the secretariat. The other members apart from them are State Secretary Binoy Viswam, PP Suneer, Sathyan Mokeri, R Rajendran, KK Valsaraj, KP Suresh Raj and KK Ashraf.

The 25-member executive, in addition to the secretariat members, includes CN Chandran, VS Sunilkumar, P Vasantham, Rajaji Mathew Thomas, Kamala Sadanandan, CK Sasidharan, Mullakkara Ratnakaran, N Rajan, Govindan Pallikappil, KM Dinakaran, TT Jismon, TJ Angelos, R Lathadevi and Chittayam Gopakumar. CP Murali, who was elected as the chairman of the State Control Commission, will be an ex officio member.

Sathyan Mokeri, a two-time MLA from Nadapuram constituency, is a member of the party's national council. Suneer, a national council member and Rajya Sabha member, was also an assistant secretary in the previous state committee.

Secretariat formed again after 10 years

The CPI is forming a state secretariat after a gap of 10 years. Following the controversy surrounding the nomination of Dr. Bennett Abraham as a candidate from Thiruvananthapuram in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the secretariat was scrapped in the conference held the following year. The secretariat was not formed even when Kanam Rajendran became the secretary. The secretariat was formed again after the recent state conference decided that the secretariat was essential to carry out the day-to-day activities of the party.