CITU Keralam State conference concludes, re-elects T.P. Ramakrishnan as president

The 16th State conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), which concluded here on Monday, re-elected T.P. Ramakrishnan as State president and K.K. Jayachandran as general secretary. V. Sivankutty will continue as State treasurer, while K.N. Gopinath has been elected assistant general secretary.

The conference elected a 47-member office-bearers’ panel, a 190-member State committee and a 536-member State general council. All the office-bearers were elected unanimously, according to the leadership.

A.K. Balan, J. Mercy Kutty Amma and M.V Jayarajan are among the 22 vice-presidents. The secretaries include K.S. Sunil Kumar, C.K. Harikrishnan and P.P. Chitharanjan, among others. K.K. Divakaran, S. Sharma and K.P. Mary are the three invitees.

Mr. Ramakrishnan was first elected CITU Keralam State president in November 2023, following the death of incumbent president Anathalavattom Anandan. Mr. Jayachandran, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State committee and State secretariat member from Idukki, replaces Elamaram Kareem, who was elected the union’s national general secretary in January this year.

The conference, which began on November 6, adopted a new organisational document. A two-day workshop will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on December 31 and January 1 to initiate the implementation of the measures proposed in the document.

Addressing the media after his re-election, Mr. Ramakrishnan said the CITU would launch a series of protests against what he termed the United Democratic Front (UDF) government’s unilateral move to transfer en masse employees of various government departments and State-run Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

“The conference also upheld that class unity would be the best tool to fight the communal agenda spread by the RSS with the support of the BJP government at the Centre,” he said.

Mr. Ramakrishnan also spoke of the plans to line workers from Keralam for a massive march from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament on December 1, demanding the repeal of the Labour Codes.

The conference concluded with a workers’ rally in the evening. Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the public meeting. A total of 625 delegates representing 1,149 trade unions across the State attended the conference.