THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Red flag has been hoisted marking the beginning of the 20th state conference of the CPM. Torches igniting the memory of martyrs brought from 14 Assembly constituencies in the district added a revolutionary red to the city’s evening horizon. Reception committee chairman M Vijayakumar hoisted the flag on Monday evening at Chandrasekharan Nair stadium brought from Kayyoor in a rally led by central committee member E P Jayarajan marking the beginning of the conference.Another central committee member M A Baby brought the flag-pole from Punnapra-Vayalar. CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and other senior leaders attended the flag-hoisting ceremony. Turning the city, which hosts the state conference for the first time, literally a red sea, red volunteers as well as thousands of party workers flowed to the stadium from the afternoon as a prelude to the mega event. Representing the 3.7 lakh party members in the state 565 delegates including 79 state committee members will be attending the four-day conference besides the central leadership. General secretary Prakash Karat will inaugurate the delegate session at AKG Hall (Harkishan Singh Surjit Nagar) at 10 a.m on Tuesday. Politburo members S Ramachandran Pillai, K Varadarajan, Brinda Karat and Sitaram Yachuri will attend. The parade of 25,000 red volunteers, a rally with the participation of two lakh party workers including one lakh women, scheduled to be held on the concluding day on February 10 will be the major highlight of the conference. Reception committee chairman M Vijayakumar told Express that this conference would be remembered for the flawless manner in which it was organised and for the content of the discussions as it was taking place at a historic juncture. The major part of the four-day conference will discuss the activity report and the organisational report. It is learnt that the activity report contains severe criticism against V S Achuthanandan’s anti-leadership tirade and his one-man army style of functioning. During the past four years since the Kottayam conference in 2008, the party had contested three general elections including the last Assembly elections in which the party was voted out of power.Against this backdrop, the conference would discuss the prospects of launching more agitations and programmes to regain lost ground. As the party had already decided to stipulate the term for party secretaries to three, the present incumbent Pinarayi Vijayan is likely to get another term. The important aspect of this conference is the near-total decimation of the faction led by party patriarch V S Achuthanandan. The factional feuds that had been simmering in the party for over two decades had been dealt with an iron hand.
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