KOCHI: As the CPI presses for the post of Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala assembly, CPM state secretariat member C N Mohanan has hit back sharply, questioning its electoral strength and accusing the party of repeatedly embarrassing the CPM through public criticism.
Stating that the CPI was using pressure tactics against the CPM, Mohanan said the party’s latest demand was part of an attempt to single out and attack CPM leader Pinarayi Vijayan.
He questioned the CPI’s claim to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition post, saying it was seeking to break conventions that had never been altered before. “Among Assembly constituencies with more than two lakh votes, in how many can the CPI get even 5,000 votes?” Mohanan asked in a social media post, taking a direct swipe at the party’s electoral dependence on the CPM to remain relevant in the Left Democratic Front (LDF).
He alleged that the CPI had repeatedly embarrassed the LDF government by attacking it publicly from within the alliance and suggested that such pressure tactics had contributed to the front’s defeat in the recent Assembly elections.
"CPI publicly attacked the LDF government from within during its tenure, embarrassing the administration. This was part of the circumstances that eventually led to the LDF’s defeat in the 2026 Assembly elections," Mohanan said.
Referring to the previous local body elections, the CPM leader said the CPI had used the PM-SHRI controversy as a “revolutionary weapon” to attack the government from within and embarrass it.
He also questioned the CPI’s historical account of the formation of the LDF, pointing out that the party had been part of a Congress-led alliance in the 1979 local body elections, when the LDF swept Kerala.
He asked why the CPI had taken nearly a year to leave the Congress-led alliance even after its 1978 Bhatinda Congress decision, which, he said, had paved the way for the party to sever ties with the Congress camp.
Mohanan's remarks come at a time of growing friction within the LDF over the CPI’s demand for the Deputy Leader of the Opposition post, signalling an increasingly public war of words between the two Left allies following the front’s assembly election rout in May this year.