POWER POINT

Red flags, green signals

Both the main communist parties in India are gearing up for their mega conventions in April. While the CPI(M) is holding its party congress in Hyderabad from April 18, the CPI’s faithful will gather in Kollam, Kerala, from April 25. The comrades are meeting at a time when national politics is in a churn, a year before the general elections. Apart from the headwinds buffeting the BJP in the heartland, the recent weeks have seen the defeat of the CPI(M) in Tripura and the rising tensions between the CPI(M) and the CPI in the ruling coalition in Kerala.

The left lost its importance in the national politics after the setbacks in the Lok Sabha elections of 2009 and 2014, as well as the two successive defeats in Bengal to Mamata Banerjee. The CPI(M) is battered by the ideological and personality clashes between the Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat factions. Yechury supports an alliance with the Congress, but Karat opposes it. Unlike the deeply divided CPI(M), the CPI is open to an alliance with Rahul Gandhi’s party.

The CPI(M) and the CPI always punch above their weight in the confabulation of anti-BJP parties, because of the stature of leaders like Yechury, Karat, Sudhakar Reddy and D. Raja. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is considered as the most powerful communist leader in the country because of his grip over the party’s biggest bastion, does not directly deal with other political parties. He weighs in during debates at the party politburo and central committee.

Illustration: Bhaskaran Illustration: Bhaskaran

The CPI(M)’s plenary is likely to be more eventful as delegates from across the country could even vote out Yechury, who is completing his three-year term as general secretary, and is eligible for two more terms. His aggressive pursuit of a close association with the Congress has found fault with the majority group in the politburo. But Yechury, who wants an all-inclusive anti-BJP coalition to take on Narendra Modi, believes that there should be tactical flexibility for each state unit to decide on ties with the Congress. The faction led by Karat and Vijayan, however, believes the Congress is a party with neoliberal economic policies and it is as undesirable as the BJP.

The CPI has frictions with the CPI(M) in Kerala over the proposal to bring in the Kerala Congress (Mani), which left the Congress-led alliance, to the Left Democratic Front. Kanam Rajendran, the CPI’s state secretary, strongly opposes it. Rajendran enjoys a rockstar status in the CPI for his efforts to bring his party out of the shadow of the CPI(M).

There have been no smoke signals on a change in the CPI hierarchy, as general secretary Sudhakar Reddy may seek a third term. If Reddy opts out, senior parliamentarian D. Raja would steer the party during the next Lok Sabha elections. The CPI may also come out with a stronger pro-Congress stance. April seems a critical month for left politics.

sachi@theweek.in