Left parties and their efforts to reach the core

CPM leadership change signals a move to tackle emerging challenges

The recent triennale party congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ushered in major changes in the party leadership. It elected a new general secretary, M A Baby, and inducted several members into the Polit Bureau (PB), a leaner working body compared to the highest decision-making Central Committee (CC).

The changes were waiting to happen for two reasons. The vacancy caused by the untimely death of general secretary Sitaram Yechury last year had to be filled up, and many members of the PB had crossed the party age limit of 75 years, requiring the induction of new faces. That should explain the stepping down of seasoned leaders like Prakash Karat, Manik Sarkar, Surjya Kanta Mishra, Subhasini Ali and Brinda Karat among others to make way for younger comrades. However, the party will continue to draw upon the vast experience of the Karats, Ali and Sarkar, as special invitees to the CC. This practice of retaining veterans is a continuation of the past, when Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet were included following the implementation of the age rule.

For many not conversant with Left politics, the description of the party carrying out a ‘generational change’ would sound anachronistic since the general secretary just turned 71 this April, and a few inductees into the PB would be in a similar age group. Exceptions notwithstanding, the Left parties have a long gestation period for their leaders to be groomed in various roles from the district level upwards before being drafted for more responsible positions. 

Baby, a former two-term MP, worked his way to the top echelons of the party apparatus through a long grind. As a student leader, he made his mark and became one of the youngest to be made an MP in the Rajya Sabha. The two terms, which ended in 1998, provided the young Marxist with early exposure to national politics, which saw the advent of the coalition era. When he entered the upper house in 1986, the situation was similar to the current single-party dominance. Yet, the milieu is vastly different in the current century.

Considered to be a person of the organisation with a natural inclination towards arts and culture, Baby and the new leadership take charge at a time when questions are being raised over the relevance of Left politics in the country. It is here that the CPM, the most prominent of the Left parties, will have to demonstrate that it is the torchbearer of this stream.

Challenges

During the past decade, the political landscape has undergone a major change. There is a rightward shift occurring on the global plane, although there is a clutch of countries where progressive forces made a comeback. At home, the emergence and entrenchment of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the principal pole led to parties opposed to its ideology reworking their strategies.

The I.N.D.I.A. experiment ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections scored limited success, and over the last year, cracks have surfaced in this arrangement over the dominance of the Indian National Congress. The tie-up with Congress benefited the CPM with a representation in the Lok Sabha from Rajasthan.

Notwithstanding the differences, the party underscored that there is a need for the broadest alliance to take on the BJP and its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It identified areas like federalism, social justice, communal harmony, gender rights, and civil liberties, which require work to carve out a distinct approach. This was juxtaposed with the BJP’s pursuit of economic policies leading to a concentration of wealth in a handful of corporations.

CPM’s resolve to build its independent strength will require a two-pronged approach – a long-term plan that has several short-term components to grow beyond its 10 lakh active members with its pro-people and working-class ideology at a time when its hallmark control of economic activities by the state finds few takers. A consolidation in this direction can be witnessed in the summer of 2026 when two states, Kerala and West Bengal, elect new governments. These states, along with Tripura, were considered bastions of the Left in general and CPM in particular till Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and BJP in Tripura upturned the applecart.

Flagbearer

Kerala remains the lone flagbearer for the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF,) now strapping up to retain the right to govern for a third straight term. Besides battling anti-incumbency, the Pinarayi Vijayan government and the new leadership will have to contend with its principal opponent, the Indian National Congress, an ally in New Delhi.

The battle for its extended run in government will mean intense no-holds-barred attacks against the Congress,  a strong counter, and a more aggressive challenger in the BJP. The last Lok Sabha elections data confirms the BJP’s roots in the state have grown and are growing deeper with outreach to OBCs and Christians amid attempts to be the ‘go-to’ party for the Hindu privileged castes. Add to this the silent workforce of the RSS, which provides a strong edifice to move ahead.

Losing Kerala is not an option for the CPM and its new leader, who holds the distinction of being one of the three from the state to hold the highest position in the party after stalwart EMS (Namboodiripad) and his understudy, Prakash Karat. The party made an exception for the 79-year-old CM Vijayan to continue in the CC and PB and lead the party in the 2026 polls, which would make or mar the future electoral representation in the state.

Challenging situation

The ground situation in the eastern state is far more challenging. The CPM-led Left Front, which governed the state without a break from 1977 till 2011, offers a case study of how the progressive forces lost the political plot to Trinamool Congress (TMC) under the firebrand Mamata Banerjee. Cut from the Congress cloth, the TMC leader broke ranks in 1998 with the parent organisation and is now working to retain power in the state for the fourth time in a row.

Ironically, the CPM and the Left have been unable to claw back space snatched by the TMC. In the last election, seat adjustment between Congress and the CPM failed to enthuse either the party cadres or, most importantly, the voters. What is troublesome for these parties is the rise of the BJP, which is quick on the uptake and willing to take up issues that find resonance among urban sections. The issue of rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata is a case in point.

Possibilities ahead

In scenarios as above, the new general secretary will have to work out the extent to which the party can arrive at a working arrangement with the Indian National Congress. The slightest hint of any overt or covert understanding in West Bengal would boomerang in Kerala, and the BJP will be more than happy to make a stew of it. 

The Left parties can draw comfort that not everywhere is the new world order moving away from ideological moorings close to its own. In the neighbourhood is Sri Lanka, and in distant lands Brazil, Chile and Mexico. All is not lost. The question is how to reach the core at home and expand it. 

(K V Prasad is a senior journalist based in New Delhi)