Women and newcomers among CPM branch secretaries

KANNUR: The CPM has the named several young women and newcomers as branch secretaries at the CPM branch conferences which started ahead of the party congress. This indicates that the CPM is moving towards more participation of youth and women from the branch level to the central committee. In Kannur district, where the branch conference started, about 30 percent of women have secured the post of secretary.

Branch conferences will begin in other districts from today. The CPM, which has about five lakh members, currently has about 30,000 branches in the state. It is also proposed that two new members of the Local and Area Committees should be below 40 years of age. It is estimated that up to 15 percent of the committee members are over 75 years of age. This will change with this conference.