KANNUR: With the political space for the Left parties fast shrinking at the national level and their electoral representation dwindling sharply, the CPM is planning to take the lead in creating a broad political alliance to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The 23rd party congress which begins in Kannur on Wednesday could lay the foundation for such a coalition.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury has been pitching for a federal front at the national level.The pertinent question is whether the party’s Kerala unit is keen to have the Indian National Congress (INC) in such an alliance.
The CPM wants to be at the forefront of the fight against Hindutva. A section of the party led by its Kerala unit believes the INC, with its soft Hindutva approach, might not be the right ally in such a coalition.
“Setting up a Left democratic front as an alliance to unseat the BJP at the Centre is of prime priority at the five-day Party Congress,” said a senior Central Committee member.
The organisational report, to be presented at the event, contains a detailed analysis of the CPM’s dismal performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, its decimation in West Bengal due to political miscalculations and need for urgent reality checks. Even as the Left government’s continuity in power in Kerala was appreciated, the report reminded the state unit of the ‘Himalayan’ responsibility the victory had brought with it. The party has been looking up to Kerala to rise to the national level and present the Left front government as one with an alternative policy framework to the BJP.
In a move to correct its past mistakes and to re-emerge as a force to reckon with, many initiatives are on the cards. Apart from infusing young blood into the leadership, the party also plans to bring the once-active central secretariat back.
The Left should take the lead in bringing all regional forces together, observed political commentator J Prabhash.
Prabhash: CPM should adopt bottom-up model
“If the CPM is sincere in its approach to form an alliance, it should not be a top-down model. It should bring together all regional forces and form an alliance. It should be more of a bottom-up model. The only criteria should be adherence to secularism. It’s an alignment of forces that marches from the periphery to the centre,” said Prabhash. True to this, the CPM political resolution calls for a political intervention through sustained class and mass struggles.
Clarify SilverLine stand: Satheesan to Yechury
On the eve of the Party Congress, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan shot off a letter to CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury citing the LDF government has taken a sharp deviation from the Left ideology to the extreme right as far as SliverLine is concernd.
Sudhakaran slams CPM on Cong alliance remarks
Comments by senior CPM leaders S Ramachandran Pillai and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that the Congress will have to reiterate its secular credentials before forging an alliance involving the party to fight Hindu nationalist agenda invited criticism from state Con-gress chief K Sudhakaran.