generational-change-of-guard-at-cpi-m-but-challenges-remain

Facing an existential crisis, marked by a steady erosion of support base across the country, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has opted for a generational change of guard, with the election of M A Baby as its new general secretary. The 70-year-old former minister from Kerala faces a plethora of challenges in rejuvenating the party which finds itself at an ideological crossroads.

 

The decision to elevate Baby, a member of the party’s Politburo, to the key post assumes significance as the Marxist party gears up for the next year’s assembly elections in Kerala, the only state where it is in power.

 

His ascent to the role, during the 24th All India Party Congress held in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai, comes in the aftermath of the demise of Sitaram Yechury in September last year. Veteran leader Prakash Karat had served as the interim coordinator for the CPI(M).

 

For Baby, who served as Kerala’s Education Minister from 2006 to 2011, the major challenge is to revive the party in its old bastions like West Bengal and Tripura and also make new inroads in new areas like the Northeast, apart from retaining power in Kerala for a third term.

 

Fresh faces

 

In a major departure from the tradition, the Marxist party inducted new faces into the Central Committee and Politburo. Prakash Karat, his wife Brinda Karat, Surjya Kanta Mishra, Subhashini Ali, and G Ramakrishnan were among several veteran leaders who have been replaced. The six-day conclave also witnessed a rare event of election to the Central Committee, indicating internal divisions.

 

As many as 30 news faces were inducted into the 84-member Central Committee, who elected an 18-member Politburo, with eight new members.

 

The CPI(M) Congress is held every three years to elect the central committee and to decide the party line. The party’s Kerala unit has got bigger representation in the central committee with 17 members, including five women, hailing from the poll-bound state.

 

Look within

 

The problem with the CPI (M) has been its dogmatic refusal to shed its ideological rigidity, embrace change in tune with the changing times and find new regional heroes to champion relevant and contemporary causes.

 

Soon after his elevation as the general secretary, Baby identified “neo-fascist tendencies” of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP as the “biggest challenges” before his party.

 

Also read: Punjab Congress in a state of 'civil war'

 

This is the fundamental strategic mistake.

 

Instead of taking up honest self-introspection and course corrections, the party leadership always tends to look for reasons outside and put the blame at the doors of its enemies.

 

Once a formidable pan-India political force, the Marxist party now has just four members in the Lok Sabha. It has only one MP in Kerala and had drawn a blank in both West Bengal and Tripura, its former strongholds.

 

The fall has been steady and consistent. At its peak in 2004, the party had won 44 Lok Sabha seats, emerging as an alternative voice, and a key outside supporter of the UPA-I government. Its tally fell to 16 in 2009, nine in 2014, three in 2019, and four in 2024.

 

The biggest paradox that the party faces is its dual role as far as the relationship with the Congress is concerned. At national level, it is part of the INDIA bloc which includes Congress but in Kerala the grand old party is its main rival. 

 

Lost opportunities

 

The famous “historic blunder” comment, made by veteran Marxist leader late Jyoti Basu while referring to a lost opportunity to lead the United Front government at the Centre nearly three decades ago, appears to be still haunting his party.

 

As a key supporter of the UPA-I, the party had an opportunity to make a positive impact on the country’s public policies but it became hostage to a single ideological issue: opposing the civil nuclear deal with the United States.

 

Refusing to budge from its strong stand, it went to the extent of withdrawing support from the government in July 2008. Since then, the party has been on the decline. 

 

It needs to look within on the reasons for its sharp decline and come up with strategies to re-invent itself in order to stay relevant.

 

A clear disconnect with aspirational middle class, continued peddling of the worn-out cold war era narrative fuelled solely by anti-Americanism, failure to recognise the role of the private enterprise in wealth creation and distribution, visceral hatred for the corporate world, blind opposition to adoption of new technologies and big ticket projects are some of the factors responsible for the left parties losing relevance over years.

 

Suffering a steady erosion of public support and losing power in its traditional bastions, the CPI (M) now finds itself at ideological crossroads and vertically divided over electoral tactics.

 

Tough task ahead

 

The newly elected general secretary has an unenviable task of revitalising the party and establishing a connection with the aspirational middle class, a section perceived to be out of the ambit of the Left influence so far. It is a major challenge to attract the post-liberalisation generation into a party whose main agenda has been to fight neo-liberal economic policies.

 

The elusive Left unity poses another challenge for him. Going by the current tactical line, the CPI (M) needs to forge state-specific alliances, on the lines of Kerala model. He also needs to iron out the differences within the party over issues of ideology and political tactics.

 

Baby had served as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1986 to 1998, and later became MLA from Kundara constituency for two terms from 2006 to 2016. He was the Education Minister from 2006 to 2011. He has been a member of the Politburo, the highest decision-making body of the CPI(M), since 2012. In 2014, he fought the Lok Sabha polls from Kollam against NK Premachandran of Revolutionary Socialist Party, but lost.