KERALA: CPI(M) PARTY WARS
The Kerala unit of the CPI(M) nixes a plan to ally with the Congress for 2019
The CPI(M) leadership is divided over the party’s “political line” for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls—dealing with the “fascist BJP” on the one hand while ceding no ground to traditional rivals, the Congress. Party general secretary Sitaram Yechury, backed by the Bengal unit, believes an electoral alliance with the Congress will help check the saffron forces in 2019. And it could even bolster the party’s prospects in Bengal, where Mamata Banerjee and her TMC have all but decimated the Marxists. Local leaders and cadre have deserted the CPI(M) in their droves since 2011, when the party lost elections in the state after being in power for 33 years.
But the same is not true of Kerala, the state where the Marxists are dominant now (the only other place being Tripura in the Northeast). Here, the Congress and its allies are still the main rivals of the CPI(M). Which is why Yechury and the Bengal unit couldn’t persuade the party leadership to accept a decision on an alliance with the Congress in 2019. The politburo vetoed the Yechury line and at the recent central committee meeting in Delhi, there were more against the proposal than for (31-30 among the 63 members who spoke; two opted to take the “middle path”). The next central committee meeting in January 2018 will finalise the political resolution for the party congress.
It was politburo member and former general secretary Prakash Karat who led the faction opposing Yechury. Karat has maintained a traditional Marxist line which sees both the Congress and BJP as political enemies. He has the support of the Kerala unit, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan
(who many consider the most powerful man in the politburo now). As many as 27 of the CM’s loyalists dominate the party’s supreme body, the 101-member central committee which includes five permanent invitees and five special invitees. (Pinarayi’s bete noire V.S. Achuthanandan is in the last list and, expectedly, is a Yechury supporter.)
“The political situation in Bengal and Kerala are different,” says a central committee member from Kerala, who preferred to remain unnamed. “We can’t have an electoral alliance with the Congress as we are fighting them politically. We may support them after the elections to keep out the BJP but any pre-poll alliance will only spoil our chances in Kerala.”
Pinarayi, of course, is much more blunt. “There will be no truck with the Congress. Who is responsible for the emergence of the BJP? It’s the Congress. Today’s Congress is tomorrow’s BJP. So betting on the Congress to fight the BJP is not a solution,” he argues.
As things stand, the Kerala unit’s tack may be a deal-breaker for general secretary Yechury. What further complicates the plot is that today the central leadership depends on Kerala rather than the Bengal unit to run the party’s day-to-day affairs. As of now, the CPI(M)’s political line seems to be to keep the Congress at arm’s length.
“TODAY’S CONGRESS IS TOMORROW’S BJP. BETTING ON THEM IS NOT A SOLUTION,” SAYS PINARAYI