The unbelievable rout of the CPI(M) at the hands of the BJP in the Tripura Assembly election has literally stunned the Marxists in Kerala along with the entire left of the State as the development has allegedly reduced the Indian Communists virtually into an ‘endangered political species’ confined to the God’s Own Country.
A social media troll captured the gist of the poll outcome thus, rather sarcastically: “We are the Kerala CPI(M). We have no branches.” The historic victory the BJP scored in Tripura, where the party fought its first-ever face-to-face battle with Marxists in India, has given its State functionaries the confidence to declare, “Kerala is next.”
Disbelief, indeed, was the expression prevalent among most of the CPI(M) leaders in Kerala on Saturday after the Tripura poll results came. A young CPI(M) leader who had visited Agartala during the campaign phase said, “I had expected the left to lose the Tripura poll. There were clear signs. Still, I had not thought that it could come to such devastation,” he said.
Newsmen waiting in front of AKG Centre, State CPI(M) headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, for seeking top Marxists’ responses to the Tripura development were mostly disappointed as not many party functionaries were ready to speak. And the few who did speak had nothing much to say: “Those who are authorized to speak will speak to you,” was one leader’s response.
The first Marxist to get out of the stupor perhaps was nonagenarian former chief minister VS Achuthanandan, the country’s senior-most CPI(M) leader who has led several proletarian battles. “(The Tripura poll results prove that) the left alone is not capable of leading and winning the battle against Sangh Pariwar,” he said in a statement.
“A battle front will have to be opened by bringing together the secular forces among the bourgeois parties,” he added while former chief minister Oommen Chandy of the Congress put forward a similar viewpoint. “The reason for the CPI(M)’s rout is its failure to understand the reality of Indian politics. Tripura points to the necessity of unity of secular parties,” he said.
For the official leadership of the Kerala CPI(M), controlled by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Tripura outcome is a double whammy. On the one hand they have been devastated by the poll result. On the other, they are now blasted from all (left) sides for being obstinate in shooting down a proposal for electoral understanding with parties like Congress against the BJP.
The social media are abuzz with jokes over Pinarayi’s appeal in Bengali language to the Tripura voters to support the left in the election, which they have rejected, obviously. He, however, did not have to undergo the embarrassment of facing the media as he was reportedly at Apollo Hospital in Chennai for routine health examinations.
Still, the official CPI(M) leadership seemed adamant and unwilling to give up the tendency to justify by jargons. Politbureau member MA Baby seemed to be trying to find fault with the Congress for his party’s rout. “The reason for this is clear. The entire Congressmen in Tripura had joined the BJP. Everybody knows that,” he said.
The Marxist leader facing the worst kind of criticisms – including from within the party – in Kerala over the Tripura debacle is none other than Pinarayi Vijayan, who has been the driving force behind the faction headed by former general secretary Prakash Karat that had shot down party chief Sitaram Yechury’s proposal for understanding with Congress.
The Kerala CPI is certain to use this occasion to intensify its attack against its big brother over the refusal to listen to the call for considering the possibility of a national-level understanding of parties like Congress to take on the Sangh Pariwar.
The situation was demanding the left and the Congress to reexamine their policies and positions, CPI leader D Raja said.
A jubilant Kerala BJP has already started describing the CPI(M)’s rout in Tripura as the start of the total decimation of Marxists from India.
“The CPI(M) has become totally irrelevant and has been isolated totally from the people. It is going to happen in Kerala soon,” said State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan.
Observers are of the opinion that Yechury’s position is likely to gain more support.
“Generally, the Kerala Marxists don’t like the Yechury theory for obvious reasons. But the situation is such that Karat and company do not have an alternative to propose if they are asked for one,” said PVS Warrier, a senior journalist.