A meeting of the Communist Party of India (CPI) district council held here on Monday decided to give party membership to CPI(M) rebels from Kuttanad.
Earlier, the CPI Kuttanad Mandalam Committee had approved 222 membership applications submitted by the CPI (M) dissidents from Ramankary, Muttar, Thalavady, Kavalam and Veliyanad. The district council ratified the decision.
Those who left CPI (M) include people’s representatives and area, local and branch committee members. Six of the nine CPI (M) members in Ramankary grama panchayat, including the local body president R. Rajendrakumar, and other elected representatives who won on CPI(M) tickets will officially join the CPI after seeking legal opinion. With this, the CPI (M) is likely to lose power in Ramankary panchayat.
Of the 222, the CPI gave party membership to 166 and the rest were given candidate membership. The new members will be accommodated into party committees at various levels at a later stage.
The decision of the CPI(M) members to defect to CPI followed failed attempts by the party leadership to resolve the factional feud that engulfed it in one of its strongholds. Rumblings in the CPI(M) in Kuttanad began more than a year ago in connection with party conferences. Earlier this year, several CPI(M) members wrote to the party State and district leadership asking it to relieve them of the party membership in protest against the biased and hostile attitude of the Kuttanad area committee leadership. They alleged that the leadership had been making unilateral decisions and taking revenge on people opposing them.
Though party leaders had held discussions with disgruntled members, dissidents said that no follow-up action had been taken and they remained sidelined in the party, which ultimately led to them severing ties with the CPI (M).
