Still standing

Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has finally been given his long-marching orders by his estranged party. He hasnt been allowed to contest the coming assembly elections by the state committee of the CPM; they denied him a ticket for health reasons. In the normal course of things,that would be it,particularly if the politician in question is 87. Except nothing about Keralas prickly CM is easy. After all,he wasnt allowed to contest last time either,and yet he wound up as CM,and served his term.

VS thrives on confrontation. His term as CM has been a long battle saga,in which he confronted not just those he identified as corrupt giving his party its main campaign plank this time round but also his own party. His feud with state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has achieved near-mythic proportions; the famously disciplined communists have been forced to tolerate attacks on party decisions that would raise eyebrows in just about any party. Major pronouncements from CM and party about policy began to fall along VS-vs-PV lines: VS objected to the CPMs wooing of a cleric with a dubious history,Abdul Nasser Madani,one of Vijayans pet projects. And then VS took on IT parks in Kerala,calling them real-estate fronts; Vijayan moved to strip the CM of his IT portfolio and had him chucked out of the partys politburo.

VS isnt easy to dislodge. Its not just his still-formidable popularity and his dogged tenacity in a fight. He brings to a bout,after all,the weight of history: he is the only remaining person from Kerala of the famous 32 who walked out of the CPI in April 1964 to set up the CPM. That party has put inner-party discipline above this history,and above electability. Will it regret that decision?