Kozhikode, Jan 31 With Kerala's ruling CPI-M getting in gear for the upcoming state party conference, where a new set of office bearers will take over, the all-powerful Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who, unlike previous CPI-M Chief Ministers, has been dominating party affairs too, is playing his cards to ensure he carries his influence forward and ensures that his son-in-law and state Tourism Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas also becomes a force to reckon with.
This became evident when the CPI-M unit in Kozhikode, the home district of Riyas, on Friday brought in Vijayan's close aide and favourite Riyas M.Mehaboob as the new district Secretary.
In this process, popular leader and former legislator A. Pradeep Kumar was sidelined when a section thought he would replace the outgoing Secretary P. Mohanan who had completed his term.
A political observer contended that if one looks into the ongoing district party meetings, the presence of Vijayan, who sits through two and three days, speaks volumes about what the game plan is.
"Vijayan is playing his cards well to see that a generation change takes place in the party and for that consolidating at the district levels is the first major step to ensure Riyas gets catapulted to higher echelons of power in the cadre party," the observer said.
Incidentally, of Kerala's 14 districts, where a new set of office bearers is taking over, in districts like Pathanamthitta and Palakkad, the Vijayan-Riyas duo failed to get their favourites to the top post but in districts like Alappuzha, Ernakulam, and Thiruvananthapuram, the new district Secretaries are all close to Riyas.
Kannur district, for long, has always been one where Vijayan has the upper hand and hence, with a good majority of the districts strongly under his control, the next post which is being planned for Riyas is at the national level when the upcoming Party Congress is held at Madurai soon.
With Riyas already in the state Secretariat of the party, it remains to be seen if he will get a place in the Central Committee, as there are vacancies that are going to come up. With Kerala the last bastion of the CPI-M, Vijayan also has a firm control in the national affairs of the party and this is what will come to his help when the new office bearers of the party will be named.
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