VS or Pinarayi - Who will CPM vote for?

Thiruvananthapuram: The scene now shifts to AKG Centre in the state capital where the state secretariat and state committee will meet on Friday to elect the new parliamentary party leader of CPM. With both, veteran V S Achuthanandan and politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan, romping home with huge margins, the question as to who will lead the party in the assembly assumes greater significance.
The state leadership of the party was not even ready to field VS in the fray as it felt his presence would spoil Vijayan's chances of becoming chief minister.But, the intervention of central leadership ensured that both VS and Vijayan contested from Malampuzha in Palakkad and Dharamdom in Kannur, respectively.
The decision of PB to field both leaders was reported in the state secretariat and state committee by general secretary Sitaram Yechury without giving any chance for the state committee to debate the issue.
On Friday, Sitaram Yechury is coming here to attend the state panel meets. The VS camp is hopeful of his intervention and they foresee VS being elected as the leader for at least the first one year or so. The huge win of the LDF is attributed by VS's followers to the whirlwind campaign the veteran had undertaken in the state. There were big crowds for all VS's rallies and his followers cite that as reflection of his popularity.
Vijayan has absolute majority in the state secretariat and state committee and sources close to him said there would be only one name as leader when the issue comes up for debate on Friday. "If the state committee is asked to select the leader, there will be only one leader. We don't know what will happen if the central leadership suggests names from their side", said a senior CPM leader.
In the central leadership too, former general secretary Prakash Karat and PB member S Ramachandran Pillai are not in favour of giving VS one more term. They cite his age, 92 years, and his habit of not the toeing party line as reasons for benching him. The veteran enjoys the support of Bengal lobby, but, with the kind of defeat the Bengal party suffered it is unlikely that they would intervene in the leadership issue here.