Veteran CPI-M leader V.S. Achuthanandan went hammer and tongs against the party's Kerala leadership at a top-level meeting in Delhi Sunday.Not one to take things lying down and known to strike at the appropriate time, he has even demanded a change in the state leadership in the wake of a lacklustre performance by the party in the Lok Sabha election.Informed sources close to Achuthanandan reveal that the 90-year-old veteran who is having a long-running feud with party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, flayed the latter and his team for the poor show in the polls.Achuthanandan said the party leadership could not take advantage of the anti-Congress wave sweeping across the country. He added that the leadership also failed to gauge the pulse of the people of Kerala as the overall conduct in the controversial T.P. Chandrasekheran murder was unfair with some more party people accused in the case still to be booted out.No wonder, the Oommen Chandy-led United Democratic Front held on by securing 12 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats.
Achuthanandan came down heavily on the state leadership, as long-standing allies like the Janata Dal-S (a faction led by media baron M.P. Veerendrakumar) had walked out of the Left alliance before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls while this time, it was the RSP. He said some statements did not go down well with the people (referring to Vijayan who called N.K. Premachandran of the RSP who defeated politburo member M.A. Baby in Kollam a wretched character). "The outcome of this statement was the humbling of our own politburo member," said Achuthanandan. He said it is time there is an overhaul of the party in the state.