Achuthanandan not in politburo, Buddhadeb in

Kozhikode (Kerala), April 9 (IANS) There were question marks over both. But while former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee retained his place in the CPI-M politburo, former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan failed to make it.

A 15-member politburo and a new central committee, which will be the watchdog of the Communist Party of India-Marxist for the next three years, were named Monday on the final day of the 20th party congress here.

Besides Karat, other members of the politburo are Pinarayi Vijayan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, S. Ramachandran Pillai, B.V. Raghavelu, Manik Sarkar, Brinda Karat, Sitaram Yechuri, K. Varadarajan, Bhattacharjee, Nirupam Sen and Biman Basu.

West Bengal's opposition leader, Suryakanta Misra, trade union leader and Centre for Indian Trade Unions president A.K. Padmanabhan from Tamil Nadu and M.A. Baby from Kerala are the three new faces.

Baby made it into the politburo in the seat vacated by Achuthanandan, who was booted out in 2009 for bickering with the powerful Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

But the veteran had reasons for cheer as there was speculation he might be forced out of the central committee. That did not happen.

The 89-member central committee includes 13 new faces.