V S Achuthanandan plan shot down

Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran CPM leader and Administrative Reforms Commission chairman-designate V. S. Achuthanandan’s proposal to have V. K. Sashidharan as additional private secretary has been shot down by the party state leadership. Sources said Sashidharan’s name was recommended by Achuthanandan along with others as staff members. However, the party rejected the proposal as Sasidharan had been earlier removed from the personal staff of VS while he was the opposition leader.

Apart from him, the then press secretary K Balakrishnan and personal assistant A Suresh were also removed from his staff. It may be recalled that despite A. Vijayaraghavan and Vaikom Viswan commission finding them guilty of leaking crucial party decisions to media and recommending their expulsion and the party state committee endorsing the same, the veteran leader could stall the action for more than a year.  But the CPM state leadership had the last laugh when the central committee meeting held in May 2013 approved their expulsion.