The drastic steps the CPI(M) has been taking in its preparation for the May 16 Assembly election in Kerala suggest that the party this time is fighting not just for an electoral win but for its very survival as a political movement of relevance.
One of the instances that makes this urgency clear is their decision — which has not yet been formally announced — to field both Politbureau member Pinarayi Vijayan and his worst enemy in the party, 92-year-old VS Achuthanandan, as lead candidates, something the party had deliberately avoided doing in the 2006 and 2011 Assembly polls.
That the proposal for fielding both Achuthanandan and Pinarayi in the election had not come from within the State unit but from the national leadership as a directive shows that it is viewing the Kerala election as extremely decisive, particularly in the context of reports that it could be impossible for the party to grab power back from the TMC in West Bengal.
As per the directive of the central leadership, which the Kerala State secretariat has approved by realizing the gravity of the situation, Achuthanandan, now 92, will be the candidate of the party-led lDF in the Malampuzha constituency in Palakkad district where he had successfully contested in the last two Assembly elections.
Vijayan, head of the neo-liberalist group in the party which has absolute control over the State organization, will contest from Dharmadom in Kannur district, represented in the current Assembly by CPI(M)’s own KK Narayanan. Vijayan’s native village Pinarayi, in a sense the birthplace of the communist movement in Kerala, falls within Dharmadom constituency.
“Such a situation was unimaginable in the CPI(M) till the other day but it seems to be happening now because the central leadership wants to ensure victory even through risky moves. It feels that victory is absolutely essential this time as what is at stake is the very survival of the party,” said a former CPI(M) theorist based in Kochi.
The list of probable candidates prepared by the CPI(M)’s Palakkad district committee the other day had not mentioned Achuthanandan’s name. It had proposed CITU leader M Prabhakaran’s name for the Malampuzha seat. This list was revised to include Achuthanandan as per a decision of the State secretariat which agreed with the central leadership’s directive.
Sources in the CPI(M) admit that it is still uncertain what conditions Achuthanandan, arguably the most popular political leader and the biggest crowd-puller in Kerala, is going to put before the leadership for leading the left in the election along with his rival in the party, Pinarayi, who has already been projected by his loyalists as the Chief Minister candidate.
“It is a fact that VS is the most indispensable factor as far as the left’s electioneering is concerned. Even the Pinarayi-loyalists know that. But what they are afraid of is his alleged knack of turning adverse situations into those of advantage as he had done in 2006 and 2011,” said a former CPI(M) State committee member.
The State leadership had initially denied ticket to Achuthanandan in the 2006 and 2011 elections but it had to reverse the decision under instructions from the central leadership following protests in the grassroots across Kerala. In 2006, the left won and he became Chief Minister and in 2011 he became Opposition leader after the lDF lost the polls by a whisker.
Winnability will be the main yardstick for selection of candidates this time. Apart from Pinarayi, five other members of the State secretariat will be candidates in this election. They are former Finance minister TM Thomas Isaac, former Power minister AK Balan and senior leaders EP Jayarajan, MM Mani and TP Ramakrishnan.