Achuthanandan, Vijayan

New Delhi, Jan. 31: The CPM central leadership wants to stick with V.S. Achuthanandan as the candidate for chief minister during the Kerala Assembly polls — as a way of getting rid of him for good.

CPM sources say the party believes it will lose the summer election anyway and that Achuthanandan, who is in his 80s, would be too old by the time the next election arrives.

“Then we can have a fresh man. If we project someone else (this time) and still lose the polls, it could be counterproductive and widen the fissures in the faction-ridden state unit,” a CPM central committee leader said.

Achuthanandan has had a running feud with the party’s powerful state secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, who is a favourite with the central leadership and has established near-total control over the Kerala unit. So, it was widely believed that this time the CPM would project a new candidate for chief minister.

Party sources, though, said the dominant view among the central leadership was to continue with Achuthanandan and avoid controversies ahead of the polls.

Before the last election, the party was forced to change its decision of not fielding Achuthanandan in the face of large-scale protests. The chief minister remains the most popular CPM leader in Kerala.

“The party feels it is prudent to continue with Achuthanandan since we are going to lose the polls anyway,” a CPM leader said.

According to the party’s assessment, there has been no significant improvement in its poll prospects since the setbacks in the last Lok Sabha elections. The drubbing in the recent civic polls lends credence to the view.

Besides, the party cannot project Vijayan as chief minister because he has been chargesheeted in the Lavalin corruption case. The party hopes that by the next election, Vijayan would have earned a clean chit from the courts.

The central leadership accuses Achuthanandan of repeatedly defying the party line. He was suspended from the politburo in June 2009 after he spoke out publicly against Vijayan. The suspension is unlikely to be revoked before the polls.