Achuthanandan meets Karat ahead of Polit Bureau meet

New Delhi, May 12 (UNI) Veteran Marxist leader V S Achuthanandan, a favourite candidate for the Chief Ministership of Kerala, arrived here today ahead of a crucial CPI(M) Polit Bureau meeting scheduled for tomorrow to give shape to party-led governments in West Bengal and Kerala.

He visited the A K Gopalan Bhavan, the party headquarters in the capital, and held discussions with CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury.

The 83-year-old Polit Bureau member was given a rousing reception at the airport and later at the "Kerala House" by the party workers and Malayalee associations.

Mr Achuthanandan, who was the Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly, told mediapersons that it was the agitations and struggles on people's issues that the Left parties had spearheaded against the Congress-led government that had paved the way for the victory of the Left Democratic Front (LDF)in the assembly election.

He said the Left parties had exposed several malpractices and corruption in the Oommen Chandy government which included encroachment in Mathikettan, Sandalwood smuggling and Kovalam palace issue.

Asked when a new government would be sworn-in, he asked the journalists to wait till May 15, indicating that a new government would be in place on May 16.

When a reporter wanted to know if his victory in Malampuzha this year had any special significance, he said that he had tasted several successes. "But, of course, this is the most important of them all." CPI(M) State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, whose relationship with Mr Achuthanandan was under strain during pre-poll days, would also attend tomorrow's Polit Bureau Meeting.

It is hoped that Polit Bureau would decide Kerala's new Chief Minister -- in all probability Mr Achuthanandan -- at its meeting tomorrow. The candidate so decided would be formalised at a meeting of the CPI(M) State Committee in Thiruvananthapuram on May 15.

If things go well on expected lines, a new government would be sworn in on May 16.

UNI SH MIR RS1848