Vijayan tears into VS, CPM mulls healing touch

The Vijayan camp effectively used its huge factional majority at the meet on Tuesday to ensure that 44 of the 53 speakers chosen to dissect the party8217;s working report, heavily loaded against VS, were its men. Speaker after speaker held forth on the many failings of VS today as both the CM and party leader, with only the rare delegate trying to put up some sort of a defence for him.

It was payback time for the Vijayan camp, which had not taken kindly to several Politburo initiatives to prevent the factional strife from boiling over even as it had stopped short of a direct confrontation, keeping itself within the special anti-faction disciplinary straitjacket that the Politburo had handed to the party for the conduct of all its conferences.

The working report being discussed at the conference on Tuesday 8212; the talks will go on until tomorrow noon 8212; is learnt to have expressed 8220;disappointment8221; at the Politburo8217;s failure to 8220;correct8221; the VS faction adequately. A particular mention was made of the Politburo coming in the way of firmer action against the 12 VS men who put themselves up as candidates to the state committee at the earlier Malappuram conference, defying official diktats.

CPIM sources said the Poliburo members present here are likely to meet tonight or tomorrow to take stock of the circumstances and decide on an intervention plan in case things get out of hand. The central leadership does not want the battle to culminate in a messy factional slaughter in the state committee elections at the end of the event.