THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As CPM stretches its wings after district conferences, the leadership has gone for deft social engineering by electing nine out of 14 district secretaries from the Ezhava community. The party has successfully implemented an inclusive policy ensuring sufficient representation for the powerful minority communities. Though the leadership claims that the secretaries were elected based on organisational grounds, insiders said the harsh reality faced by the party in the last Parliament election, has reflected in the experimentation.
The CPM’s new positioning in a changing political sphere comes in the wake of SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan’s criticism. Natesan had criticised that even though parties desperately go after Ezhava votes, the community is ignored when it comes to selecting party functionaries and candidates.
Except in Wayanad, Kozhikode, Thrissur, Idukki and Pathanamthitta — where secretaries belong to either Muslim or Christian communities — secretaries in other districts belong to Ezhava community. In the cabinet, the CPM had maintained community balance with five ministers belonging to the Nair community.
“The CPM has been promoting leaders from Ezhava community to the CM post for the last 15 years,” political analyst Ajith Sreenivasan told TNIE. “In Congress, the chief minister post is now a ‘declared reserved’ seat for the Nair community.
CPM has now realised the mistake it committed in the Parliament election when it played the minority appeasement card, which cost it dearly. In many party villages, especially Dharmadam, Mattannur, Taliparamba and Kalliassery the base Ezhava votes of the CPM went to BJP candidates though they had no chance of winning,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congress has been facing a stiff challenge in maintaining community balance. Out of the party’s 21 MLAs, only a single MLA belongs to the Ezhava community. In Parliament, the community’s representation is limited to two. “After C Kesavan and R Shankar, the Congress never had a CM from the Ezhava community.
Though there were leaders like Vayalar Ravi, who was elected to Congress Working Committee at a younger age, he was never made a CM candidate while his colleagues A K Antony and Oommen Chandy made it to the top post. Vakkam Purushothaman, V M Sudheeran, and Mullapally Ramachandran, who were second to none in terms of political credentials, were also ignored. Even K Sudhakaran could not emerge as a contender for the CM post,” Ajith said.
UDF leaders like CP John hold the view that the Congress must address the issue of lack of representation for the Ezhava community seriously. “In 80 assembly seats spreading from Thrissur to Thiruvananthapuram, winnability mostly depends on social factors than political reasons,” UDF secretary C P John told TNIE.
“The influence of SNDP Yogam is crucial in these districts. Earlier, Congress had many tall leaders who were also top functionaries of SNDP Yogam. After BDJS became a part of the NDA, there is a dearth of influential leaders from the Ezhava community in Congress, much to its disadvantage,” he said.
Congress leaders, however, pointed out that the perception that the party lacked leaders from the Ezhava community is not true. There are leaders like KPCC general secretary M Liju in addition to DCC presidents in Kottayam, Kollam and Palakkad who belong to the Ezhava community.|
Meanwhile, the BJP is in a close fight with the CPM. BJP’s alliance with BDJS, has resulted in the appointment of new district presidents with nine belonging to Ezhava community. However, around 13 are from the dominant Nair community, two are from SC and three from Christian community.
