Thiruvananthapuram, March 20 Daggers are out in the Kerala unit of the CPI - the second biggest constituent in the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government, with the party's state executive on Thursday deciding to suspend its top most veteran leader K.E. Ismail for six months.
This decision will now be put before the state council of the party.
The 83-year-old Ismail is a former state minister, a three-time legislator, and a Rajya Sabha member.
Even at this age Ismail is fit as a fiddle and for a while, has been heading a faction in the party against the majority faction which was led by then-state Secretary Kanam Rajendran and after his demise, Binoy Viswam.
The immediate reason for Ismail facing suspension was the way he reacted when former popular CPI legislator P. Raju passed away last month due to an ailment.
Raju was close to Ismail but was sidelined by the party that was led by Rajendran and Viswam, despite being a stalwart former legislator.
What irked the state leadership, a majority who are opposed to Ismail, was his open attack on the party in the wake of Raju's family saying that they were not interested in placing Raju’s body at the CPI office in Ernakulam.
Ismail went public by saying that Raju was deeply upset with the way he was sidelined by the party, despite being a tall leader of the party and that’s why the family did not want to keep the body in the party office.
This issue affected the image of the second biggest ally in the ruling Left government and it was only a matter of time before the action against Ismail came.
Ismail, asked on Thursday morning if he was expecting disciplinary action for his statements, said let's wait for the meeting and its outcome. When the news surfaced of the decision to recommend his suspension for six months, he declined comment. "At the moment, I am not speaking anything," he said.
Another veteran CPI leader who does not have the best of relations with the present leadership is former state minister C.Divakaran and he was in the news recently when he took part in a meeting organised by the Congress.
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