CPI(M) set to tackle factional differences at Kozhikode district meet

State leadership has its task cut out

Stage is set for a showdown between two opposing groups in the official faction of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] with its three-day Kozhikode district conference beginning on Monday.

The conference, to be monitored by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and party State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, both Polit Bureau members, assumes significance as its outcome will broadly serve as a guiding template for the State conference in Ernakulam next month.

Although the CPI(M) allows a system of internal democracy for its members, the State leadership is unhappy with indiscipline now escalating at district-levels. The apparent rise of Minister for Public Works P.A. Mohamed Riyas in the upper echelon has brought in a new balance of power on the complex web of politics of the CPI(M) in Kozhikode.