CPM to compensate VS with plum post and cabinet rank

The Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPM) may compensate veteran leader VS Achuthanandan, who was dumped for making Pinarayi Vijayan the Kerala Chief Minister, with a position not less than that of cabinet rank. The Politburo (PB) of the party is known to have recommended to the state party leadership to give Achuthanandan an independent position. 

The Politburo meeting Monday proposed to reward the leader with a  plum position that will have sovereign powers and would not come under the purview of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Asianet News reports. The post will also have legal protection from a person holding dual office position with all the privileges of the leader of Opposition that Achuthanandan currently enjoys. 

After being denied the chief minister's post, the party top brass is keen to please the veteran Communist, who is still the popular face of the party among the masses. Achuthanandan, who was persuaded by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury to give up his claim for the chief ministerial berth to Vijayan, is not likely to settle for anything less.

Last week, Malayala Manorama flashed a photograph of Achuthanandan reading a note during the swearing-in ceremony of the new ministry in Kerala. The note apparently had three things listed, advisor to the government with Cabinet rank, Chairman of LDF, and inclusion in state secretariat. Initially, it was thought that it was CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who was sitting next to Achuthanandan who handed him the note. But later Yechury revealed that it was Achuthanandan who had passed on the note to him.  

In his briefing after the PB meeting, Yechury, however, did not confirm the reports on the cabinet rank to Achuthanandan. It is the state cabinet and not the PB to take a call on that, he said. 

The PB meeting on Monday did not consider the re-entry of Achuthanandan into the state secretariat of the CPM. Nor did it discuss the demand to make him the Chairman of the LDF.