HYDERABAD: For the CPM party congress, it could now officially be partytime with the Congress. Party general secretary Sitaram Yechury has finally had his way, as the 22nd party congress on Friday brought in an official amendment to its draft political tactical line, favouring the West Bengal backed Yechury line. Despite the consensus, it could well be termed a setback to the Kerala CPM, which has been pushing for the Karat line.
In an apparent move to keep the windows open for a Congress alliance, the wording ‘without having an understanding with the Congress’ has been excluded from the resolution. The climbdown in the Karat line has been made apparently in the wake of the Tripura setback.
After threatening to snowball into a major rift within the CPM - which could have even led to a split within the party - a consensus move was least expected from the top brass. That the proposal for consensus was moved by none other than Kerala strongman and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan did not go unnoticed.
With delegates from around 15 states demanding a secret ballot on the political resolution and the Karat-led official faction maintaining that such a practice was never part of party history, there were indications of an open rift. Highly placed sources said the politburo that acts as the steering committee for the 22nd party congress decided to make the necessary amendments so as to leave a window open for any profitable electoral alliance. Referring to its political tactical line, the draft resolution says, “The main task is to defeat the BJP and its allies by rallying all secular and democratic forces. However, this has to be done without having an understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress party.”
This sentence has been excluded. Instead, there was another sentence saying, “there won’t be any political alliance with the Congress.” The resolution further says: “Appropriate electoral tactics to maximise the pooling of anti- BJP votes should be adopted based on the above political line of the party.” After the discussion, Yechury said the party should take into consideration the general sentiment of the debate. He also underscored that unity within the party is of prime importance. Earlier, there were hectic parleys within the party to avoid extreme responses from either side. Addressing the delegates, Sitaram Yechury said the steering committee resolved the issue. Then Karat mentioned about Tripura setback and pointed out that in the wake of the new scenario, necessary amendments are being made.