VS faction flexes its muscles

KOCHI: After losing to the official faction led by Pinarayi Vijayan in Pathanamthitta and Kollam, the Achuthanandan faction has emerged victorious in the election to the Ernakulam district committee. The panel set up by the existing district committee, which is dominated by the Achuthanandan faction, won the election hands down, dealing a heavy blow to the Pinarayi faction.Though politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan is learned to have brought in a proclaimed agenda for taking over the committee, all their calculations went wrong. The official faction was desperate to implement the proclaimed agenda all through the day, but the other faction could defend it cleverly. “We had been anticipating that the official faction would come up with many tactics to overtake the committee. But we all stood united for defeating factionalism,” sources said. With the victory, the Achuthanandan faction has 26 members and the Pinarayi faction has just 17 members in the committee. The only solace to the Pinarayi faction is that they were able to retain M V Govindan as the district secretary. Even after deliberations for a consensus, the Pinarayi faction opted for election and fielded 12 members at the last moment. They thought of making inroads into the committee, thus taking over it step by step. The officials faction had also plotted to create a split among the delegates by opting for an election. However,at the end of the day, loyalty towards Achuthanandan prevailed.Though the Achuthanandan faction had decided to field two members - T Raghuvaran (Tripunithura) and Manoj (Ernakulam) - they withdrew from the election after Kodiyeri held discussions with them.But, of the 12 from the Pinarayi faction, only two - N C Mohan of Perumbavoor area and P N Sinulal of Ernakulam area - could get through. Had the Achuthanandan faction too opted for an election, there were indications that stalwarts in the Pinarayi faction, including Gopi Kottamurickal and K J Jacob, could not have made it to the district committee.It should also be noted that there was no conference to the Kochi area committee, where the Achuthanandan faction has a majority.  The conferences to only 18 area committees were held, and the Kochi Area conference was postponed owing to factionalism.