Kanam Rajendran unanimously elected as CPI state secretary

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Kanam Rajendran has been re-elected as the CPI state secretary. He was elected unanimously in the state conference held in Thiruvananthapuram. Although there were indications that Sunil Kumar or Prakash Babu would contest, the party's national leadership intervened and avoided the contest. C Divakaran and K E Ismail were dropped from the state council due to age restriction.

Kanam has been elected for the post of secretary for the third term by confining the rebel faction. Although K E Ismail was expelled from the state council, he can continue as a member of the central executive till the end of party congress. The rebel faction showed their strength in Idukki, their stronghold, during the selection of delegates from district to state council. Kanam supporter ES Bijimol was not only dropped from the district representative list, but she was not even considered as a party congress representative. G A S Jayalal from Kollam and P Raju from Ernakulam were also rejected. In the discussion, the delegates criticized those who made public responses regarding the age restriction controversies without bias. In his reply speech, Kanam reminded that the unity of the party is important.