Kannur: The 85-member new Central Committee that was elected at the 23rd Party Congress has chosen Sitaram Yechury as the CPM general secretary. Yechury is taking over the reins of the party for the third consecutive term. Yechury was first elected at the CPM Party Congress held in Visakhapatanam, Andhra Pradesh, in 2015.
The 85-member new Central Committee has 15 women and 17 new faces of which four (P Rajeev, K N Balagopal, P Sathidevi and C S Sujatha) are from Kerala. The 17-member politburo has three new entrants.
CS Sujatha, P, Sathidevi, P Rajeev and K N Balagopal are among the Keralite comrades who have made it to the Central Committee (CC) of the CPM for the first time. Another Keralite, A Vijayaraghavan has been made a member of the Politburo. The elections to these apex bodies were held at the ongoing 23rd Party Congress which is set to conclude in Kannur on Sunday evening.
In a first, the CPM brought in a Dalit to the Politburo. Ramachandra Dom, a Bengali comrade, thus made history.
The Central Committee is the apex decision-making body of the left party. The Politburo on the other hand is empowered with making day-to-day political decisions, which must later be ratified by the Central Committee.
Rajeev and Balagopal are currently ministers in the LDF Government in Kerala.
(To be updated)
