CHENNAI: The Communist movement in India, born in 1925 as CPI, split in 1964 for various reasons, giving rise to the CPM. However, after six decades of its split, much water has flowed under the bridge, and within 15 years, leaders of the CPI felt the need to unify the CPI and CPM.
Since then, there have been efforts in this direction, and R Nallakannu has been advocating for the unification time and again. The CPI completed its centenary on December 26, 2025, and on many occasions, Nallakannu has expressed pain at the CPI’s split in 1964 and reiterated his strong wish for the unification of the CPI and CPM, saying the Left parties must unite since it is a necessity for the country and expressed confidence that the time for that to happen would ripen soon.
In 2016, the then CPI general secretary, S Sudhakar Reddy, in Hyderabad, said the CPI is for the reunification of the Communist movement, and that reunification is different from merger. Reddy had also pointed out that the issues that divided the communists in 1964 had become irrelevant.
Speaking to TNIE, former CPI state secretary R Mutharasan recalled that on numerous instances, Nallakannu underscored the need to unify the two parties. He said Nallakannu was of the view that the continuation of the Communist parties as two entities is not good for the country. Mutharasan said past leaders of the CPI, including AB Bardhan and C Rajeswara Rao and general secretary D Raja, had also proposed the same.
Mutharasan recalled that Nallakannu, in his inimitable soft-spoken tone, used to explain the need to unify the parties to CPM leaders whenever they met. Mutharasan said that in 1978, the CPI conference held in Bathinda, Punjab, adopted a resolution for the unification.
CPI leader PK Vasudevan Nair, who headed a coalition government in Kerala with Congress as one of the partners between 1978 and 1979, stepped down as chief minister after the Bathinda resolution of the CPI, which called for the unification of CPI and CPM, just to comply with the party’s view.
