Resolution against Achuthanandan which says he has anti-party mindset still exists: Pinarayi Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: CPM strongman and politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said the resolution passed by the party against Marxist veteran V S Achuthanandan still exists, but there is no need to link it to his candidature for the 16 May Kerala Assembly polls. “The decision of the party and resolution remains and will not cease to exist unless it is amended or rejected,” he said when asked whether the resolution passed by party secretariat in 2015 that “Achuthanandan has anti-party mindset” still exists. “However, there is no link between his candidature and the party resolution”, Vijayan, who was the state secretary of the party when the resolution was passed, told reporters. “The party considers various aspects to select candidates for the polls. It found that Achuthanandan should be in the fray,” said Vijayan, considered bete noire of 93-year old state Opposition leader Achuthanandan. It was the party’s decision to make Achuthanandan a candidate for the polls and not that of the leader, he added. The former chief minister had walked out of the state conference held in Alappuzha in February 2015 following sharp differences with party leadership. He had also cited ‘serious flaws’ in the conduct of the state unit under Vijayan. However, the party’s central leadership intervened to sort out issues in the state unit. The party has maintained that a decision on the chief minister’s post would be taken only after the poll results. However, the official faction in the party in the state is in favour of making Vijayan the next chief minister if LDF comes to power. [caption id=“attachment_2740398” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Veteran marxist leader VS Achuthanandan. AFP[/caption] Vijayan is contesting from Dharmadam in Kannur while Achuthanandan from Malampuzha in Palakkad district. Meanwhile, another party politburo member and former state minister M A Baby said the core issue in the election is the corruption charges against the UDF government. “No point in raking up history which is irrelevant now in the polls,” Baby said. “It is an attempt by anti-Left group to divert the attention from the main issues of the polls,” he added. Meanwhile, later in the day, Vijayan in a Facebook post claimed, a section in the media was “creating false reports” that he had termed Achuthanandan as an “anti-party man”. “We are functioning together. Reports are created that VS has been insulted as an anti-party man. I have the experience of false reports earlier. In recent times, there was a slowdown on such reports. But, I am surprised that it surfaced again,” Vijayan said in his posting. “We are facing the polls without any differences and nobody should think that they can create impediment on that,” Vijayan said. “VS is starting the campaign from North today and I am from South. That is our way of doing things. We are functioning unitedly,” he said. Seizing on the issue to attack CPI-M, BJP state president Kummanom Rajasekharan asked Achuthanandan to keep away from election if “he has any self-respect.” “I am asking this in the wake of Vijayan stating that Achuthanandan is an anti-party man,” Rajasekharan said in a statement. “It is a pity that CPI-M has to field an anti-party man for the polls,” he claimed.