NEW DELHI, May 26: India's main communist party, the CPI-M, was thrown into a serious crisis on Saturday when two of its leaders — Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achutanandan and the state's party chief Pinarayi Vijayan — were suspended from the CPI-M Politburo for publicly clashing over old differences.

CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat, also from Kerala, said the Poliburo felt that the behaviour of the two veteran leaders was “unacceptable” and action should be taken against them.

“The Politburo decided to suspend V S Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan from the Politburo and place the matter before the Central Committee for its consideration. The two comrades will continue to discharge all their other party responsibilities,” he added.

The Central Committee is scheduled to meet in Delhi for three days from June 24. The Kerala leaders have been arch rivals for years.

According to CPI-M sources, the party leadership, which has been struggling to resolve the unrelenting feud between the spartan trade unionist Mr Achuthanandan and pragmatic leader, Mr Vijayan, was “shocked” at their recent outbursts against each other.Mr Achuthanandan told his detractors on Wednesday not to take the sheen off the good record of his ministry during the last year, especially the bold move against land grabbers and other mafia, by kicking up unnecessary controversies.

The message was not lost on anyone, coming as it did the day after Mr Achuthanandan rebutted Mr Vijayan's charge of an anti-CPI-M media syndicate, saying those who rubbished the syndicate had been exploiting it to their advantage.

On Wednesday, Mr Achuthanandan indirectly blamed the Vijayan faction for leaking Left Front deliberations to the media on internal differences about the “Munnar demolition drive” and the composition of the special taskforce. Mr Achutanandan has ordered the demolition of tourist resorts that had come up in recent years in the lush tea estates of Munnar.