Easy win for VS faction in Ernakulam DC poll

KOCHI: Inflicting a body blow to the Pinarayi-led official faction, the V S Achuthanandan faction on Sunday  won CPM’s Ernakulam district committee hands down. The panel set up by the existing district committee dominated the elections. Acting secretary M V Govindan, who secured a maximum of 309 votes, will continue as the district secretary.Gopi Kottamurickal, C M Dinesh Mani, K Chandran Pillai, K A Chackochan and C K Manishanker were all inducted into the new district committee. Even after a two-day long heated debate to reach a consensus, a 12-member panel from the Pinarayi faction opted for elections. Out of this, only two — N C Mohanan of Perumbavoor area and P N Sinulal of Ernakulam area — could make it to the committee. With this, the ratio between Achuthanandan and Pinarayi factions in the district committee has come to 26 to 17.The 10 members from the Pinarayi faction who failed to make the cut were M Chacko (Koothattukulam Area), M K Sivarajan (Vypeen), E P Sebastian (Nedumbassery), T C Shibu (Mulamthuruthy), V Salim (Aluva), T R Bose (Paravoor), Udayakumar (Aluva), Sony Komath (Vyttila), Asees Ravuthar and K K Sivan (Kavalangad). Member of the existing committee C N Sundaran (Tripunithura) and nominated member Sakkir Hussain (DYFI central committee member) - both from the Pinarayi faction - were also defeated. Out of the total 375 delegates, 374 were present for voting. P A Kunjumohammed of Kothamangalam did not attend the conference owing to ill-health. While M V Govindan bagged the maximum number of votes, P N Seenulal just sneaked in with 184 votes. Gopi Kottamurickalcould get only 185 votes. The newly-elected district committee includes C V Ouseph, T K Mohanan, P S Mohanan, M P Pathrose, P M Ismayil, M D Semandabhadran, K J Jacob, V P Saseendran, K N Unnikrishnan, T R Gopinath, M C Surendran, C N Mohanan, M P Varghese, C B Devadarsanan, P R Muraleedharan, O N Vijayan, P R Gangadharan, P N Balakrishnan, P K Soman, K Thulasi, T I Sasi, P J Varghese, V S Shadanandan, P S Shyla, V M Sasi, K B Somasekharan, K N Nair, K B Bhadran, M K Purushothaman, T K Valsan, John Fernandes, K N Gopinath, C K Pareeth, Henny Baby, Advocate M Anil Kumar, N C Mohanan and P N Sinulal.