Misconduct: CPM leader cut to size

KOCHI: Comrades with loose character are having a tough time in the CPM. Close on the heels of the expulsion of P Sasi, Kannur district secretary, from the party, Gopi Kottamurickal, Ernakulam district secretary, has been removed from the post on the charges of misconduct.The district committee which met on Monday approved the decision of the state secretariat based on the investigation of the party committee into the charges against him.M V Govindan, state secretariat member in charge of Ernakulam, will take over as the district secretary. However, Kottamurickal will continue as district secretariat member.The development is indicative of the fight for the control of party in the state in the ensuing organisational polls. Kottamurickal is the first casualty suffered by the official faction in the district committee.Earlier, some of the district secretariat members belonging to VS faction had levelled serious charges against Kottamurickal. The state secretariat constituted a threemember committee comprising A K Balan, Vaikom Viswom and M C Josephine to look into the charges.It was during the last organisational polls that Kottamurickal, then a strong confidant of V S Achuthanandan, moved over to the official faction. With him becoming a turncoat, the VS faction lost the district which had long been its stronghold.The official faction has started retaliatory moves, sources said. Its immediate target is S Sarma, the first lieutenant of VS. There were allegations that Sarma, who is in charge of AP Varkey Mission Hospital at Arakkunnam in Kochi, had committed financial frauds.