Drawing a lesson from the disappointing results of the 2009 lok Sabha polls, the Kerala CPI(M) is likely to avoid fielding comparatively inexperienced young leaders as candidates in the coming Parliament election and instead field prominent and well-experienced party leaders and prominent public personalities.
A feeling has already strengthened in the party that the “blunders” — as a leader put it — committed in the selection of candidates in the last election should not be repeated this time. The party believes that one of the main reasons for the huge setback it suffered in the 2009 election was the fielding of inexperienced and comparatively unfamiliar faces.
The top leadership now feels that the party was defeated in at least four seats because of wrong selection of candidates though fielding of young candidates had proved to be effective in two constituencies. The CPI(M)-led lDF had been able to win only four out of the total 20 seats in the State in the 2009 polls while it had bagged 18 seats in the 2004 election.
The feeling gaining strength in the CPI(M) is that candidates should be people who could be inducted into the Union Cabinet in case the so-called Third Front is able to constitute a government defeating BJP-led NDA and Congress-led UPA as there is already an in-principle decision that the party should not keep itself away from power if such a situation arises.
Some of the big names the party is presently considering for the polls are Politbureau member MA Baby, central committee member TM Thomas Isaac and State secretariat member Elamaram Kareem.