Kollam (Kerala): Chintha Jerome, a central committee member of the organisation and CPM state committee member, has been elected as Kerala’s first woman state president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).

MLA and former SFI state secretary M Vijin has been appointed as the state secretary. Rahul from Alappuzha is the new treasurer. The office-bearers were officially selected during the state conference held in Thrissur.

Internal dissatisfaction previously surfaced within the organisation regarding the dilution of the mandate requiring at least one primary district office-bearer in the DYFI to be female.

Following directives from the CPM leadership, the decision taken by the DYFI state secretariat was overridden in most districts. Only four districts, Kannur, Palakkad, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram, selected female district presidents, while no woman secured a secretary position anywhere.

The directive itself was issued only after conferences in Idukki and Pathanamthitta had already wrapped up. Women were assigned the treasurer post in eight districts – Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Malappuram. To enforce this standard going forward, the DYFI passed constitutional amendments strictly guaranteeing a minimum of 20 percent female representation across all committees.