Kerala Left parties open state meetings

Thiruvananthapuram: The two southern-most districts of India's Kerala state have been coloured red this week as the state conference meetings of both the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) opened yesterday in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam respectively.

This is the first time that the two communist parties have their state conference meetings starting on the same day.

More importantly, though, the meetings are opening in the backdrop of strong animosity between the two parties, reflected in a war of words between leaders of the two Left outfits.

Former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan hoisted the flag for the CPM's state conference meeting yesterday morning at the AKG Centre here, even as speculation continued about the internal strife within the CPM's state unit.

Some 479 delegates, representing over 370,000 party members, are participating in the state conference deliberations.

All major leaders of the party, including general secretary Prakash Karat, state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Brinda Karat, S. Ramachandran Pillai and Sitaram Yechuri are participating in the meeting.

Breaking with tradition

The two communist parties have traditionally held their state meets one after the other, but that has been broken this time, with both opting for the same date.

The air of animosity between the two, ironically, exists at a time when there is also a call for the merger of Left parties.