THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Patience and perseverance seem to be the guiding stars of the state unit of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), for it has unsuccessfully contested all the assembly and parliament elections in the past 57 years! This time, the party is fielding candidates in eight Lok Sabha seats.
The party’s senior leader, S Mini, is contesting from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. Other constituencies where SUCI(C) candidates have been fielded are Kollam, Mavelikkara, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Chalakudy and Kozhikode.
Campaigning is in full swing and the party has pretty good visibility in all places.
Unlike other political parties, electoral victory is not the ultimate target of SUCI(C), says its state secretary Jaison Joseph.
“People’s movements are our politics. We contest elections in this backdrop. The party does not believe in winning an election by hook or by crook,” he says, adding that the party hasn’t ever been part of unholy alliances aiming for parliamentary gains.
Only in the 2016 assembly election was the SUCI(C) part of an alliance. The partners were the Revolutionary Marxist Party led by K K Rema and the Marxist Communist Party of India (United) led by V B Cheriyan. SUCI(C) contested in 38 seats then.
Donations from the public and money shared by party members are SUCI(C)’s major sources of income. Election funds too are mobilised thus and corporate funding is never accepted, the secretary says. The party has about 1,200 full-time cadres and a few thousand members in the state.
Perhaps the biggest contribution of SUCI(C) was the numerous public issues it took up in the past five decades. It took the lead to unite people and organisations to fight for people’s rights on issues ranging from the mineral sand mining at Thrikkunnapuzha to the anti-K-Rail protest. The party played a significant role in the people’s movements at Chengara, Vilappilsala and Moolampilly.
First state unit in Kollam college
The first Kerala unit of SUCI(C) was formed by a group of students of the TKM College of Engineering, Kollam. It stepped into electoral politics by fielding Kochucherukkan in the Eravipuram seat for the 1970 assembly election. The party’s first Lok Sabha candidate, James Joseph who contested from the Kollam seat, garnered over 8,000 votes.
Founded in 1948, the SUCI(C) had presence in the assemblies of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Odisha at different times. Its lone MP, Tharun Mandal who contested from West Bengal, was in the fourth Lok Sabha.