The CPM grand plan to cleanse the organisation is ready. And on the anvil are plans to put a cap on the number of times a person can become a secretary — powerful posts in the party’s hierarchy — at all levels and setting up of a mechanism to monitor assets and income of comrades.

It is learnt that the party’s Central Committee, which met here for three days, has in principle decided that those getting elected to the post of secretary can only serve a maximum of three terms. However, there is no clarity on whether the rule will apply to the general secretary.

Sources said the proposal would only come into effect after it gets the clearance of the Party Congress, the highest decision making body of the CPM. Although the Central Committee agreed to put forward the proposal before the 2011 Party Congress, sources said exceptions could be made. “We want to bring it as a norm. But it cannot and will not be mechanically implemented. The interests of the party would also be taken into consideration,” a senior leader told The Indian Express.

The argument was that secretaries are the most powerful functionaries in the party order, and the system of one person heading a committee — whether local, district or state — for years together leads to favouritism and stagnation. There was also a suggestion that the terms of office-bearers, including Politburo members, be fixed.

While the idea is to bring in fresh blood, sources said it is not clear whether the general secretary would be brought under the rule’s purview. While CPM Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan is serving his third term as state secretary, it’s general secretary Prakash Karat’s second term.

... contd.