Infirmities like lack of enthusiasm among grassroots comrades for energetic campaigning, inability to convince the people of its claim of being a peace-loving party, failure to turn any of the struggles it had undertaken in the past three years into success, etc are causing immense worries to the Kerala CPI(M) as it is preparing for the lok Sabha polls.
The CPI(M) leadership’s worries are further complicated by the disappointing findings of various pre-poll surveys that have predicted a severe setback in the election for the party and the lDF it leads. Even senior leaders are admitting secretly that the results in the lok Sabha polls in Kerala could go drastically against the left in such a circumstance.
Observers are of the opinion that the left may not be able to bag even ten out of the total 20 seats in Kerala if the lok Sabha election is held now and almost all the pre-poll surveys conducted so far agree with this. Such a situation has a larger ramification as far as the CPI(M) is concerned considering its pathetic electoral and organisational state in West Bengal.
That the top State party leadership is facing a credibility crisis due to allegations of indulging in a “politics of understanding” with the Congress, charges of connections with mafias in the land, sand, mining and other sectors, charges of top functionaries leading luxurious lives, etc are also seen as factors that may go against the party’s interests in the coming election.
Despite the huge crowds of party workers seen at the receptions accorded to State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan’s February 1- 26 Kerala Raksha Yatra, the leadership feels that the lack of enthusiasm seen among grassroots comrades during the panchayat-municipal elections of October, 2010 has only worsened.
According to sources in the party, there are complaints among the lower and middle level leaders that the State party’s top leaders attending the Politbureau and central committee meetings are wasting time complaining about the anti-party activities of people like Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan instead of holding discussions on how to solve the more serious issues.
“The huge setback in the 2010 civic elections proved how badly the party’s fundamental structure had weakened due to the apathy and lethargy of the local and branch committees. Since then, there has been no serious effort to enhance the confidence and enthusiasm of members of these units,” admitted a former CPI(M) State committee member.
One of the main reasons for worsening of this loss of enthusiasm in the grassroots level was the feeling created by the failures of all the agitations the party had held in the past three years. The CPI(M) (and the lDF) had staged at least four major agitations since January, 2012 but all of them had failed pathetically, he said.
“In fact, there has been no serious introspection within the party even after it suffered a series of serious setback in election after election since 2009. The fact is that the party has not been able to put up even a performance of solace in any crucial election or by-poll since the last lok Sabha polls,” he said.
However, the biggest single factor that is going to affect the prospects of the left in general and the CPI(M) in particular in the coming election is the party’s alleged role in the brutal murder of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam, Kozhikode on May 4, 2012, according to CPI(M) sources themselves as well as political analysts.
Though the CPI(M) leadership has been vehemently arguing ever since the killing of Chandrasekharan that the party had nothing to do with the crime, the “often-defensive and largely arrogant” responses of leaders including Pinarayi Vijayan at crucial stages of the case have only helped in strengthening the public perception against it, they say.
“The party’s official decision to oppose a CBI probe into the conspiracy behind the murder and the kind of anger it showed towards Achuthanandan when he supported such an investigation were telling examples of this Marxist double-speak. The rebel’s murder is sure to affect the poll prospects of the left,” said a senior journalist.