Yechury camp sees political win in Round 2
Round two went to CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday with the party’s Central Committee asking the politburo to incorporate his ideas on working with the “non-Left secular forces”, including the Congress, to oust BJP from power, while finalising the party’s politicaltactical line ahead of the party meet to be held in April next year.
While the Bengal faction, led by Mr Yechury, is in favour of such an alliance, the Kerala faction, led by former general secretary Prakash Karat, is against it.
The “coup d’état” for the Yechury faction came after 31 members out of the 63, including former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achutanandnan and state finance minister Issac Thomas, spoke in favour of Mr Yechury’s line at the three-day meeting. Two members remained ambivalent on their stand.
This helped avoid a voting in the Central Committee over the matter.
Sources said those who supported the Yechury line included the entire Bengal unit except two members, and members from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir. Significantly, there was a division in the South Indian states also with members from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana as well as Kerala supporting his stand.
In might be recalled that in the last meeting of the CPI(M) politburo, the faction led by Mr Karat had dominated, following which two drafts were circulated in the meeting.
The CPI(M) has to finalise a draft outline of a tactical-political resolution before the party meet in April next year. This document, which would be adopted at the party meet, will form the basis of its strategy for the 2019 general elections.