A letter has been received: Karat

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rattled by CPI-M veteran V S Achuthanandan's confirmation that he had indeed sent a letter to the party leadership, CPI-M began a damage control exercise stating that media reports regarding the missive were misleading and intended to create confusion.


CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat, in a brief statement from Delhi, said media in Kerala was indulging in a lot of speculation on the letter sent to him by Achuthanandan.


"I wish to state that a letter has been received. However, reports in the media regarding the letter are misleading. They seem to be intended to create confusion," Karat said.


Significantly, while confirming he had shot off a letter to the leadership, Achuthanandan did not deny any portion of the reports that appeared in the press as the contents of the letter, which reportedly sought an overhaul of party leadership in the state.



"Yes I did write to the central leadership. I do not intend to share the contents of the letter with media", Achuthanandan said in Kayamkulam in Alappuzha District.


As per media reports, the senior leader said to have written that he was not interested in continuing as opposition leader if the central leadership did not intervene in the affairs of the party in the state being led 'astray' under the leadership of Vijayan.


Vijayan, who had dubbed the reports as "mere media creation," today maintained Karat had confirmed that the content of the letter was not as reported.


'...Karat had confirmed that the content of the letter as propagated by the media was not correct. It could be a media creation', he told reporters in Kannur adding he was also not aware of the letter's content.


The latest turn in the long-running feud between the two leaders has come at a time when CPI-M is locked in a grim assembly bye-election from Neyyattinkara.


The bypoll has been caused by resignation of the assembly seat by R Selvaraj who won from the segment in 2011 on CPI-M ticket. After stunning the party two months ago, Selvaraj is back in the fray as a Congress candidate.


To the LDF's discomfiture, the Congress-led UDF has been going to town with the CPIM's internal squabbles.


Achuthanandan, sulking after he failed to get into the polit bureau in the recently held party congress, was waiting for a chance to strike back at the state leadership.


He has seized on the recent murder of T P Chandrasekharan, leader of Revolutionary Marxist Party, a former CPI-M activist from Onchiyam in Kozhikode district, after which the CPI-M has come under shadow of doubt.