The once-powerful Telangana communists are now reduced to haggling for a few seats in alliance talks. In an exclusive interaction with TNIE’s B Kartheek, CPM state secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram said the Left parties are falling behind in this era of money-driven politics. He noted that across the world, communist parties have risen again every time they have faced a setback. Excerpts:
The communists are now looking to other parties for alliances. Why has such a situation arisen?
We never look for alliances. During the Munugode by-election, it was the BRS that proposed an alliance. We held talks with Congress on their proposals, we did not initiate talks. AICC Telangana in-charge Manikrao Thakre telephoned me stating that they are up for an alliance and invited us for talks. Thereafter, several rounds of talks were held at State and Central level. However, they changed their words.
Recently, the CPM and CPI held a public meeting attended by Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, the national general secretaries of the two parties, and announced that they will face elections collectively, calling it an unprecedented event. Now, when the elections are finally here, the CPI and CPM part ways. What is happening?
The CPM is still abiding by the statement of going together with the CPI. We didn’t part ways as such. Even as they are with the Congress, we will support the CPI where it is contesting. It is the CPI that wanted to go with Congress, and our negotiations with the Congress didn’t go well.
For the 2023 Assembly elections, your party has adopted a peculiar stand that it would support the Congress or BRS wherever these parties would give tough competition to the BJP, apart from supporting the CPI.
The parties may be different. But the common idea is to defeat the feudal BJP. It is a matter of fact that a candidate of party X could be better-placed to defeat the BJP in one constituency, it could be a candidate of party Y in another segment. Our principle is to defeat the BJP.
But you have accused the BJP and BRS of implementing anti-people policies. And when there are elections, you are appealing to people to vote for these parties.
We are not supporting the Congress or BRS in some segments out of love or affection. Ultimately, our fight is with the BJP. If we could defeat the BJP on our own, we would have not extended support to these parties. So, we are helping the parties that can defeat the BJP.
In the first general elections held in 1952, communist parties under the banner of People’s Democratic Front (PDF) did well in the Telangana region and defeated the Congress in many places, and a communist leader won a Lok Sabha seat with a bigger majority than even Jawaharlal Nehru. Now, your vote share has been reduced to 0.44% in the 2018 elections. Even in the CPM stronghold of Miryalaguda, the number of votes polled by the party went down from around 22,000 in the 2014 elections to 12,000 in the 2018 elections. What is the reason for this fall?
In the previous elections, the Congress did not perform well and even lost in the Amethi segment. But it doesn’t mean that it is the end of their era. If you look at communist history worldwide, the communist parties have risen every time they faced a setback. Some two decades ago, people used to elect on the basis of leadership traits and ideologies. Now, the dominant parties have brought contractors into elections, making politics money-driven. This has also led to a change in voter patterns. We are falling behind due to this.
Has your party expanded in terms of cadre and voters in the span of the last five years? Do you foresee an increase or decrease of vote share compared to previous elections?
In the last five years, it is the CPM that fought for people’s issues such as Anganwadi-Asha workers, mid-day-meal, housing, and so on. We certainly see an increase in vote share this time.
The CPM contested in 26 seats in the last elections, and it is 17 this time as of now. Why is that?
We are not fielding candidates in the segments where the CPI is contesting. Had the CPI come with us, our number would have gone over 40.
How do you see the current elections?
Regardless of win or loss, the people will discuss the political ideologies of different parties. Our focus is to put forth the communist role in parliamentary democracy.