New Delhi, Feb. 14: The CPM today fully backed Pinarayi Vijayan , the Kerala party boss accused in a corruption case, and stopped short of taking action against V.S. Achuthanandan, the chief minister who had refused to publicly endorse the politburo’s position on the issue.

The uneasy tightrope walk, intended at keeping factional fight in check till the general election is over, followed a politburo meeting in Delhi today. The feud is one of the biggest issues tormenting Prakash Karat in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

The CPM seemed to have given Achuthanandan autonomy as chief minister to carry out his constitutional obligations, including the right to decide whether or not to give the cabinet nod to prosecute Vijayan, but with a rider that as a politburo member, he has to abide by the party line and cannot overstep limits through public statements.

Such a dichotomy carries seeds of conflict unless either side blinks: the politburo feels — and Karat reiterated it today — that the CBI case against Vijayan in a power plant deal with a Canadian company when he was minister was “politically motivated”. But Achuthanandan has refused to toe that line, saying that as chief minister, he would fulfil his constitutional obligations — an oblique reference to the request pending before the state government for permission to prosecute Vijayan.

An intriguing element was added before the politburo meeting when Achuthanandan met Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The meeting fuelled speculation that Achuthanandan was lobbying support from the Bengal unit which has had its points of difference with Karat.

Other than the friction with the party bureaucracy and the ability to win elections, there is not much in common between the stated positions of the pro-change Bhattacharjee and the traditionalist Achuthanandan who has assiduously nursed a constituency that relates more to the anti-industry ethos of the CPM old guard.

But Bhattacharjee is in a better position to give Achuthanandan an idea of how to take a nuanced stance of toeing the party line as well as carrying out a chief minister’s obligations.

Sources said a senior politburo member had met the Kerala chief minister last night to “dissuade” him from taking the “extreme stand like offering to step down” at today’s meeting.

It is not clear if the Bengal lobby also played a part in the party's decision to spare Achuthanandan for the time being. But sources suggested that the party would keep a close watch on Achuthanandan before deciding whether to retain him as chief mini-ster after the Lok Sabha elections.

Although a strong faction within the party feels that Achuthanandan should be punished, the high command is treading with caution because any voter backlash would be disastrous in the post-poll scenario at the Centre. An almost clean sweep in the last Lok Sabha elections in Kerala in 2004 had helped the Left call the shots at the Centre for some time.

Kerala High Court has given at least three months to the government to decide whether Vijayan should be prosecuted, which means Achuthanandan can go slow if he wants to or tighten the screws before that.

CPM sources said that the “party can consider the issue again” if the court finds Vijayan guilty at a later stage and, for the time being, stick to the stand that the case was politically motivated. “There is a long way to go… till the Supreme Court . But we are confident that there is nothing in the CBI chargesheet to nail Vijayan,” a source said.

Karat made it clear that there was no question of an independent stand being taken by the Kerala chief minister, though the party understood that he had a constitutional role to play.

“No independent stand but Achuthanandan as chief minister has to follow legal and constitutional procedures,” Karat later told The Telegraph in reply to a question whether the Kerala leader can take a position of his own.

But Karat gave some leeway to the chief minister on another front. Asked whether Achuthanandan will attend the concluding ceremony of an ongoing march led by Vijayan in Kerala, Karat told the media conference: “Wait and see.” Sources later said that “a decision to take part or not” was not being viewed seriously by the party now.

As of tonight, the chief minister has humoured the party by cancelling a reported “background briefing” to select journalists. Soon after Karat’s media conference this evening, some Malayalam television channels flashed alerts that the chief minister is “expected” to brief some reporters. Whether Achuthanandan was planning such a briefing at all is a matter of conjecture but it was not held this evening — which was taken to mean as the chief minister has decided to oblige the party for the time being.

How long he will keep silent once he reaches the familiar — and more agreeable — shores of Kerala is anybody’s guess. Achuthanandan, who has a way with words and gestures, is a master in the art of getting across the message without uttering a word.

Karat this evening left the media conference venue in haste, saying he would be out of Delhi. But he will be keeping his ear to the ground in his and Achuthanandan’s home state, Kerala, once the chief minister lands there.