Achuthanandan, Pinarayi rift surfaces again

Thiruvananthapuram, May 23 (UNI) Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today accused his opponents within the party of leaking information to the press, prompting CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan to hit back at the former for keeping a senior leader like him under the needle of suspicion.

The salvo was fired first by the Chief Minister at a post Cabinet press briefing when he said that those who were making a hue and cry about the existance of 'media syndicate' were depending on the same to serve their purpose.

The party state secretary was supposed to brief the media regarding the party matters and in the case of the ruling Left Democratic Front, its convener was the authorised person. But in the recent past, discussions in the party fora were leaked to the press, he alleged.

Asked whether the faction loyal to Mr Vijayan was behind such leakage, the Chief Minister said it was up to the mediapersons to judge whom he targeted by saying so.

Later, the party state secretary convened a press conference in which he made it clear that a senior politburo member like Mr Achuthanandan should not have created a situation where he (Mr Vijayan) was kept under the shadow of suspicion.

''It is true that I am the person who argued that there exists a media syndicate in Kerala. But I don't think Mr Achuthanandan will make a public statement against me. It is a matter of decency between two comrades,'' he added.

Mr Vijayan also alleged that the expelled member Shajahan, former private secretary to Mr Achuthanandan, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, was again active in media syndicate with the ''blessings of his guru.'' UNI CR AJ BDP KN1804