Election alliance with Congress, others next big test for Yechury
NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury may keep the doors open for seat adjustment with the Congress and other opposition parties for the 2019 general election, having compelled the organisation to include his vision in the party’s politicaltactical line in May this year.
While the CPI(M) remains averse to rushing into electoral alliances with Opposition parties, the Yechury camp is certain that a combination of the Opposition’s firepower is needed to take on the formidable BJP in next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
“Minimising the contest between non-bjp parties will be important and, in many cases, holds the key to success,” Yechury said on Wednesday. The party’s options remain open on the post-poll situation, amid suggestions that it could provide outside support to any non-bjp formation if the situation arises.
Observers say the CPI(M), after a string of poll debacles, is scrambling to improve its electoral fortunes and sees seat adjust- ments as mutually beneficial. With the party’s footprint having shrunk in West Bengal, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and some other states, the communists are desperate to reverse this trend.
The CPI(M), reeling from the losses in Tripura and West Bengal, will deliberate the idea at its forthcoming Central Committee meeting on October 6. But officials familiar with the developments indicate that Yechury’s ideas might face hurdles from the dogmatic section of the party led by leaders such as Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Insiders point out that two years ago, the politburo slammed the West Bengal unit after the latter went for an informal understanding with the Congress in the assembly polls. The politburo review said electoral tactics in West Bengal was “not in consonance with the line of the party, which states that there shall be no alliance or understanding with the Congress party.”the Kerala unit of the CPI(M) has always been opposed to such an alliance because it fights the Congress in the state.
The Yechury camp is hopeful about getting its way. “Things have changed both externally and internally. Yechury’s victory in the last party congress is a strong signal that his views can’t be ignored so easily,” said a party leader. Another Yechury loyalist pointed out that the current tactical line of the party says, “Appropriate electoral tactics to maximize the pooling of anti-bjp votes should be adopted based on the above political line of the party.”
The CPI(M) has its support base in Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and in parts of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh.
“In West Bengal, sections of the Congress are keen to join hands with Mamata Banerjee. Trying to ally with them now may once again wrong-foot the CPI(M) before the elections.
“Outside West Bengal, the Congress-cpi(m) alliance issue is of little relevance,” said Prasenjit Bose, a leftist economist.