KOCHI: Former minister G Sudhakaran has been dropped from the CPM state committee. Apart from him, 12 more have been dropped from the committee.

Sudhakaran and others were dropped due to the strict age limit. Senior leaders above 75 are dropped now. The age limit for the members of the state committee was fixed as per the decision of the central commisttee. Only Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been given exemption in this. There were reports earlier that Ananthalavattom Anandan, K J Thomas and Vaikkom Viswan would be dropped. P Karunakaran, Koliyakode Krishnan Nair, Unnikrishna Pillai and K P Sahadevan are among those dropped.

There were indications that Sudhakaran would get an exemption, but he has been dropped from the committee. Sudhakaran had earlier written to the party state leadership asking to drop him from the state committee. He has been dropped considering this. Sudhakaran has been a member of the CPM state committee since 1988.

The party is trying to give a face of the youth by including those in their 40s in the committee. There is also a strong demand to bring those in the leadership of class and mass organizations to the organisational leadership.