Union polls likely to stoke CITU-CPM war again

The three-day KSRTEA State conference is to begin at Perinthalmanna on January 21.

At the last KSRTEA conference a controversy was created over the party control on trade unions.

Even as the CITU advocated for the “independent and sovereign status” of the TUs, the party felt that their cadres in TUs should go by party dictates and were bound to implement the party decisions.

Interestingly, the union has been functioning without a president since the pollsas the CPM had asked Bharathan to abstain from assuming the charge as the union president.

A party inquiry committee headed byCentral Committee member P K Gurudasan which looked into the circumstances that led to the defeat of its nominee had held union general secretary K K Divakaran guilty of the “coup”.

However, the party limited the disciplinary action to a warning to Divakaran to prevent any further damage to the organisational structure.

Taking note of the “serious lapses” for which the party had to pay dearly last time, the CPM has taken all precautionary measures to avoid any such bloomers being repeated this time.

The party has reportedly screened the delegates to the conference starting to ensure that those with unfailing party loyalty are elected as delegates.Meanwhile, the screening has reportedly led to resentment among the members with some taking up the issue to the CITU State and Central committees as they felt that screening amounted to “assault on TU democracy and rights of the members to choose their leaders”.

Though aware of the CPM gameplan, the CITU faction, while keeping their cards close to thechest, has stuck to their stance of “emergence of TU leadership from among the workers without any external interferences (read CPM) and the freedom of workers to elect their own leaders”.

The CITU all-India general secretary M K Panthe is to inaugurate the conference on January 21.

Close on the heels of the KSRTEA is the Cochin Shipyard Employees Union (CSEU) election which had earlier created a “shipyard model” in the district inspiring’ the dissidents to an open revolt against the party.In the keenly-contested election last time, the CITU bigwig V B Cherian had defeated K Suresh Kurup, MP, by a margin of 46 and single-handedly led the panel to an absolute victory much to the headache of party district leadership.

Interestingly, A K Kishore, who was expelled from the party on charges of associating with the Save CPM Forum along with Cherian and Deshabhimani associate editor Appukuttan Vallikunnu, won the union joint secretary post with the maximum number of votes polled in his favour lasttime.

The CITU had also been successful in extending the Shipyard model to the other unions in Kochi where it ensured victory by defeating the CPM nominees.