CPM plans revamp as Karat era draws to close

The CPM has finally decided to correct its political line and revamp the party organisation. The decision signifies an end to the leadership of Prakash Karat, who has been leading the party since 2005.  

The party will initiate a comprehensive review shortly and finalise it in the next meeting of the Central Committee scheduled for August.

The new line could be adopted in the party congress, to be held in April or May next year. Karat will have completed his last term as general secretary by then.  

Correction of political line means the CPM will no longer be engaged in making alliances with the “bourgeois” Congress or forming a Third Front. It will also not be taking a soft stance against policies of economic liberalisation, as it did in Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal, a Left activist told Deccan Herald.

“The Central Committee decided to review the political line and organisational functioning in order to take corrective measures,” said the committee in a release.

In the process of arriving at the new political line, the party would conduct studies to understand the impact of liberalisation of economy during last two decades on the society, revealed Karat.

He was addressing a press conference called to brief the media about the outcome of the two-day meeting of the party's Central Committee, held on Saturday and Sunday.The CPM leadership admitted to its failure and the two supreme bodies of the party—the politburo and the Central Committee—took the full responsibility.  

“We had an in-depth discussion and critical assessment of the poor performance of our party. The politburo and the central leadership have taken full responsibility for failure to expand the party and the decline in our mass base. This has been reflected in the election results,” he said.  

Party cadres have apparently forced the leadership to decide to correct its line. This had been resisted by state leaderships of West Bengal and Kerala.