The Kerala CPI(M), which claims to have buried the decade-long neoliberalist-traditionalist divisionism with its last State conference held in February, is divided over whether to support Politburo member Sitaram Yechuri in the election of the new general secretary. Incumbent general secretary Prakash Karat will step down with the 21st party congress to be held at Vishakhapatnam between April 14 and 19 as he has completed three consecutive terms.
If the confrontation so far in the party had been directly between the groups led by Politburo member and former State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and central committee member and State Assembly’s Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, the State unit is divided into several camps over the matter of election of the next party chief. While Pinarayi Vijayan, who still holds a large number of State leaders under his wings, is vehemently against Yechuri, the miniscule group that is still loyal to Achuthanandan supports him even as the stand of the new State secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who used to be a Pinarayi-loyalist earlier, is yet to be known.
The Kerala party, in which the neo-liberalists had brutal majority, had as a whole been of anti-Yechuri stand so far but the situation seems to have changed a lot. Even several staunch Pinarayi-loyalists are now holding Karat responsible for the troubles the party is presently facing and have reportedly changed their approach to Yechuri. “The fact is that Pinarayi may be losing his grip over the State unit. That he might lose his grip once he stepped down as secretary was certain but nobody had expected this to happen in a pace in which it seems to be happening. A reflection of this is will be seen in the leaders’ approach to Karat also. This is what is happening now,” said a pro-Achuthanandan CPI(M) leader.
It is not yet clear as to what position State secretary Kodiyeri, himself a neoliberalist, will adopt in the matter. Party insiders say that he does not hold much loyalty for Karat anymore. “Kodiyeri and his supporters are likely to form their opinion only after watching the proceedings of the congress,” said a Kochi-based former CPI(M) theorist. Achuthanandan, who wants to see the end of the “Karat school” (as a leader put it) in the party, has already made it clear that he and his small number of supporters would stand by Yechuri by presenting a note in the central committee which effectively supplemented the alternative document Yechuri had moved against the official draft political document for the congress.
Many CPI(M)-watchers are of the opinion that a huge change may happen in the Kerala CPI(M) after the party congress. They say that the tradition of direct confrontation may end soon and that the new State chief, Kodiyeri, will have to adopt a softer approach towards those who question the anti-Marxist tendencies that have allegedly crept into the party under the neoliberalists.