New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 6 (IANS): Kerala's Kannur will, in all likelihood, host the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist's 23rd Congress some time during first half of next year, according to sources in the know of things.

The venue of the party meet and other key decisions will be taken at the party's three-day Central Committee meeting which began in Delhi, through the virtual mode, on Friday.

The 22nd Congress was held at Hyderabad in 2018 but due to the Covid pandemic, the 23rd edition has been delayed.

Kannur is the citadel of the Communist movement in Kerala besides being the home town of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who presently is the last word not just in Kerala CPI-M, but nationally also as his position in the party was strengthened after he literally single-handedly led the party to an unprecedented consecutive second term in power, while bettering the 2016 success in Kerala.

With Kerala the only state in the country under the rule of the CPI-M and with not a single seat in West Bengal, which they ruled for over three decades, it was a foregone conclusion that the mega political event of the CPI-M would be held in Kerala.

The last time Kerala hosted the Party Congress was the 20th edition in 2012 at Kozhikode.