The moral responsibility for the LDF’s defeat in Kerala does not lie with former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, but with the collective leadership of the CPI(M), the party’s general secretary M.A. Baby said.
“Pinarayi Vijayan is the senior-most leader, both in terms of age and his position within the politburo and Central Committee. Naturally, he led the election campaign. Even during the campaign, we had said that if the LDF secured a majority, the question of who would become chief minister would be decided at that stage.
“There is no question of a single comrade alone taking responsibility. The leadership as a whole has to take responsibility if there were shortcomings in the conduct of the campaign or mistakes in election-related decisions,” Baby said, while responding to questions over Vijayan’s responsibility in LDF’s massive defeat in the state.
Baby added that if mistakes had been committed, the party would engage in self-criticism and undertake a thorough examination, followed by corrective and rectification measures. “This has always been the practice of the Communist movement, and we will certainly follow it,” he said.
The CPI(M) politburo, which met in Delhi on May 10 and 11, discussed the assembly election results in the five states, including Kerala. After the meeting, the general secretary described the outcome in Kerala as a “serious setback” for the party. The politburo also noted that the BJP winning three seats in Kerala was a serious development.
The party announced that it had conducted a preliminary review of the results. The PB was quick to arrive at the conclusion in this preliminary review itself that “the conduct of the Congress, making baseless allegations and spreading canards against the CPI(M), along with its soft approach towards communal forces, contributed to the growth of the BJP in Kerala.”
The party concluded that the BJP winning three seats in the state was a “serious threat”.
However, the PB did not arrive at even a preliminary assessment of whether anti-incumbency against the Vijayan government had played a role — an issue that found no mention in the party communiqué.
The party, meanwhile, said it would conduct an in-depth review in the coming days to identify the weaknesses responsible for the setback. The PB said that the opinions of all party members and well-wishers would be taken into consideration during the review process, and promised that necessary course correction and rectification measures would be undertaken to strengthen the party.
Interestingly, Baby admitted that the CPI(M)’s earlier rectification drives had not been fully effective in resolving the party’s problems. “After every setback or defeat, we have said that corrective steps would be taken. At every stage, we did undertake corrective measures. But now it has become clear that those steps were perhaps not sufficient, and that further corrections are needed. We will identify what more needs to be done and move accordingly in Kerala,” he said.
“We are going to hold discussions across the party at every level. The CPI(M) has more than five lakh members, all organised through party units, branches, local committees and other structures. All committees will meet to discuss the issue. We will also listen to our sympathisers and hear their assessment of what went wrong and what led to this defeat. After completing this wider consultation process, the party will meet again in the first week of June to take matters forward.”
Similar review exercises are also expected in other states where the party faced electoral setbacks. Baby also said that the CPI(M) politburo did not discuss the choice of Opposition Leader in Kerala. He confirmed that the decision on the Opposition Leader would be taken by the party’s Kerala unit.