Achuthanandan dropped from CPI-M Central Committee; made special invitee

Vishakhapatnam: Veteran Communist leader V.S Achuthanandan, Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly, was dropped from the new CPI(M) Central Committee. He was made a special invitee instead.

Paloli Mohammed Kutty was also dropped from the highest executive body of the CPI (M).

A new 14-member Central Committee has also been formed, inducting A K Balan and Elamaram Kareem from Kerala.

Talking to reporters, Achuthanandan said there was nothing untoward in his being made only a special invitee in the central committee of the CPI-M.

He said that he has been made "special invitee" not due to his health but age.

“There is nothing untoward in the decision and I accept it,” said Achuthanandan while leaving to catch a flight to Chennai.

Achuthanandan has been in the Central Committee since the party’s inception in 1964. His ouster, thus, would be like an end of an era for the party.

In protest against the party resolution accused him of having an anti-party attitude, the CPI (M) stalwart had courted controversy earlier this year when he staged a walkout of the 21st state Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) conference of the Kerala unit.

The CPI(M) later condemned the move and the politburo commission is now looking into the matter.

Achuthanandan is the only living member of those who walked out of the Communist Party of India and formed the CPI-M in 1964.