Man behind Maha farmer rally may get CPI(M) politburo berth
The CPI(M) politburo is set to see major changes at the 22nd Party Congress here on Sunday, according to senior party leaders, although general secretary Sitaram Yechury seems set to get another term, his second, barring a surprise candidate being put forth by the party’s Kerala lobby. Yechury is supported by the West Bengal lobby.
Ashok Dhawale, the party’s face in Maharashtra and the brain behind the farmers ‘Long March’ this year, is expected to be elevated in the politburo as a reward for his organising skills. The march from Nasik to Mumbai didn’t just highlight the plight of farmers bearing the brunt of an agrarian crisis, but also put the state and the central governments in a spot.
The President of the party’s trade union CITU, AK Padmanabhan, may be dropped from the politburo, according to party insiders. If that happens, it will be after decades that CITU will not have two representatives in the party’s top body. If Padmanabhan goes out, only CITU general secretary Tapan Sen will represent the organisation in the politburo. “The outgoing Central Committee will meet on Sunday to decide the new panel,” former CPIM general secretary Prakash Karat said on Saturday.
The politburo is a select group of leaders that takes the day-today decisions of the party, and a spot on it is coveted.
It is answerable to the Central Committee, the apex executive body, equivalent to the Congress Working Committee. Currently, it has 16 members including two women and three from the minority community, but no representation from the scheduled castes and tribes.
Amid allegations that it is an upper class club, Brinda Karat said: “We are aware of the issue. We are careful about the social composition of the organization.”
Party insiders added that SR Pillai, the Communist ideologue from Kerala, is on a sticky wicket but may survive as he enjoys “support from Prakash Karat and the powerful Kerala lobby.”
HYDERABAD:
After the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, which threw up a hung Parliament but with the Congress emerging as the singlelargest party, the Opposition came together to install a coalition government to keep the BJP out of power. The Left parties, with a record 61 seats, automatically became the anchor of such a coalition.
Senior leaders recall that then-Congress President Sonia Gandhi depended on then CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet even to build consensus on the choice of Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. Congress strategists Jairam Ramesh and Salman Khurshid sat with Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat to draft the common minimum programme (CMP) and eventually, the UPA came to power. CPI(M) was offered cabinet berths but the party refused to join the government and only offered it outside support. Finally, the two sides came to an understanding and senior CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee, a veteran parliamentarian, was elected as the Speaker.
WHAT HAPPENED
The Congress-led UPA government functioned smoothly for the first three years with the support of the four Left parties: CPI(M), Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc. The Left contributed to the roll-out of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rrural Employment Guarantee Act-- the UPA’s flagship rural jobs programme - and supported the Right to Information Act. But it blocked disinvestment and opening up more sectors to foreign direct investment. Trouble started when the government decided to pursue an unprecedented agreement with the US government on nuclear energy in 2007. The CPI(M), ideologically averse to the US, saw red and threatened to pull out. The Centre formed a panel to negotiate with the Left.
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became adamant about signing the deal, Karat announced withdrawal of support to the UPA government in July 2008. The West Bengal lobby, Yechury and some other members of the party were opposed to the move, but Karat found support from the CPI (M)’s all-powerful Central Committee. The CPI(M) even summarily expelledChatterjee for not resigning from the Speaker’s post to vote against the UPA government.