KOCHI: Kodiyeri Balakrishnan will continue as the CPM state secretary. This is the third stint for him. Pinarayi Vijayan has been in the post five times and V S Achuthanandan thrice.

Party general secretary Sitaram Yechuri announced the name of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan at the state conference concluded in Kochi today. The conference selected 88-member state committee and 17-member secretariat. There are eight new faces in the state secretariat and 16 in the state committee.

Mohammed Riyas, Puthalath Dinesan, M Swaraj, V N Vasavan, Saji Cherian, K K Jayachandran, P K Biju, Anavoor Nagappan have been freshly inducted in the state secretariat.
M M Varghese, A V Razal, E N Suresh Babu, C V Varghese, Panoli Vatsan, Raju Abraham, A A Rahim, V P Sanu, Dr K N Ganesh, K S Saleeka, K K Lathika, P Sashi, K Anil Kumar, V Joy, O R Kelu, Dr Chintha Jerome have been accommodated in the state committee.

Only Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has concessions in the new state committee. Former ministers G Sudhakaran and M M Mani, senior leaders Ananthalavattom Anandan and Koliyakode Krishnan Nair, all prominent leaders above 75 years of age have been dropped from the state committee.