THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Having touched rock bottom nationally, both electorally and politically, the CPM is on a last-ditch attempt to win back its mass base. Literally shrunk to the bare minimum, the party is keen to expand its independent strength, as it gears up for its 24th Congress in Madurai from Wednesday.
Keen to emerge from the rut the largest Communist party in the country finds itself in, the CPM wants to convert the support it garners from mass and class agitations into electoral victories. “The party’s current perilous situation calls for the deepest introspection in its history. The political scenario is similar to 1972, when the Communist party found itself in deep trouble,” a senior leader said.
“Wriggling out of the present scenario is of utmost priority. In West Bengal, the party was in power for 35 years. Now it has come down to a dismal 5-6% of votes. It’s a similar situation in Tripura, too. In Andhra, we once had a 37% share of votes. But as of today, we find ourselves restricted to the tiniest electoral space. Heaving the party out of this self-destructive space is the first priority. Equal importance will be given to discussions on countering the RSS’ Hindutva campaign,” a senior leader opined.
The draft political resolution for the party Congress is highly self critical. “The LS election results have shown weaknesses in our political and ideological efforts to counter the BJP.
These should be overcome,” the document mentioned, with regard to Kerala. Similarly, it calls for overcoming lag in taking up mass and class issues for local struggles, on sustained basis. The draft underlines the need to also overcome the present deplorable feebleness of struggles undertaken by the rural poor.
Meanwhile, there’s much curiosity about who would be the next general secretary. Going by seniority and a slew of other factors, Kerala leader M A Baby is the top contender, point out sources.
Once leaders above 75 years are dropped as per the age criterion, B V Raghavulu, who became part of the PB in 2005, would be seniormost. Baby (inducted into PB in 2012) and Mohammed Salim from West Bengal (a PB member since 2015) are next in line. Both Raghavulu and Baby function from the party centre in Delhi, while Salim is now West Bengal party secretary.
Being the last state secretary of united Andhra Pradesh, Raghavulu now focusses on Andhra and Telangana party affairs.
A section in the party is expected to propose the name of Ashok Dhawale, who drew national attention following the farmers’ long march, as an ideal face to lead the party during testing times.
“Naturally, seniors in the existing team will be given priority. Salim, being West Bengal secretary, will focus more on state party affairs. Similarly, Dhawale has been focusing on party affairs and farmers’ issues in Maharashtra region. The party has lost ground in Andhra and Maharashtra. So top leaders from these regions should focus more on reviving its fortunes,” a central committee member pointed out.
With Kerala being the most vibrant and strongest unit, many feel that a leader from the state should be made general secretary. Being a leader from the minority community and his long association with the party centre would be additional factors in favour of Baby. If selected, he would be the only leader from Kerala to adorn the post after E M S Namboodiripad, who was CPM general secretary from 1978 to 1992.
