What CPI(M)'s party congress signalled to its cadre and INDIA bloc

A fair amount of agonising introspection of its recent performance and its declining and depleted state marked the 24th party congress of the CPI(M), which concluded in Madurai. Not just the selection of M.A. Baby as the general-secretary, but also reconstitution of the politburo and the unprecedented relaxation of rigid protocols and centralisation, allowing state units in Kerala and West Bengal the flexibility to design their own roadmap for the future, are also significant departures from the past.

The restructuring of the politburo could not have been easy because of the CPI(M)’s eroding strength in what were once its bases — Maharashtra, undivided Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, West Bengal and Bihar. The inclusion of Rajasthan Lok Sabha MP Amra Ram as a representative from the north is a pointer.

The other very noticeable character of the new politburo is the number of leaders drawn from the peasant movement — Ashok Dhawale, Vijoo Krishnan and Amra Ram. U. Vasuki, one of the two women in the politbureau, is from the trade union front. Mariam Dhawale, too, is All Indian Democratic Women’s Association general-secretary and represents specific interests. 

The selection of Baby, former Kerala minister and two-time Rajya Sabha member, as party general-secretary to fill the void created by the demise of appears designed to reassure loyalists, friends and allies. Baby’s was not the only name under consideration; there was a short list, which included among others, Mohammad Salim, who was confirmed as secretary of the West Bengal party.

By choosing Baby, the CPI(M) delivered the message that it needed to pull out all stops to retain its only remaining power base in Kerala, where the Pinarayi Vijayan government is up for re-election for a . His task in Kerala is to ensure that the faction-ridden and corruption scandal-smeared party sinks differences and joins forces to snatch a third term win for Vijayan.

Having experience in, and exposure to, national politics as well as opposition leaders was also deemed a plus for Baby. His selection is a message that the party wants to continue to play within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), build on partnerships established in the past, and manage the complicated relationship with the Congress that is at the heart of alternative politics in the current scenario.

The draft political resolution — first published in the February issue of Peoples’ Democracy, the party’s official weekly organ, and adopted with amendments at the party congress — makes it clear that joining forces with the Congress is a priority because it is “the main secular opposition party”.  At the same time, it states that “the Party cannot have a political alliance with the Congress.”

By marking the boundaries within which the CPI(M) will partner the Congress, there is now more transparency for the party rank and file to grasp and act on the dictum, “the attitude of the CPI(M) to the Congress is determined by this need for broader unity of the secular forces”.

Allowing state units to customise responses to conditions on the ground, in contrast to the rigid centralisation of the past, is an acknowledgement that the local party may know some things better than the central leadership.

The loosening of the party headquarters' grip, and the realisation that there has been a “lack of effective local struggles due to the pervasive influence of Parliamentarianism, which tends to neglect grassroots ‘class and mass’ issues”, also influenced the decision. The party has suffered by over-emphasising the significance of electoral politics is the message, signifying a change in how the party sees itself and its work.

Admitting that “our overall political influence among workers has declined”, and that the party has failed to organise and build bases among contract workers, the CPI(M) has recognised that it has left sections of people out of its efforts to construct “countervailing” forces in the ideological, social and cultural spheres”.

The CPI(M) has bases among poor and marginalised farmers and sections of the working class as well as the middle class; what it does not have is an inclusive appeal.

The subdued reflective tone of the political resolution and the political report points to a pragmatic reappraisal of what the CPI(M) has failed to do and what it needs to do to get out of the slump. By making important breaks with tradition, like presenting the political report before the adoption of the political resolution and giving West Bengal and Kerala space to draw up separate state-specific strategies, the party seems to have recognised that tradition, which is a form of rigidity, can weigh “like a nightmare on the brains of the living”.

Salim’s decision to refuse the party general-secretary’s job apparently stemmed from his determination to focus on West Bengal in an effort to regain some of the ground the CPI(M) has lost in the past 14 years and reverse its dismal record in state elections since 2011, including the zero it scored in the 2021 assembly elections.

In the complicated three-way competition for votes, with the Trinamool Congress, the BJP and the CPI(M) and its Left partners pitted against each other, it is crucial for the party to ward off the slur of a 'Ram-baam' or BJP-Left conspiracy and communicate a clear distinction between itself and Trinamool.

The political resolution states “Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is an autocratic party based on a criminal-corrupt-political nexus which is virulently anti-Communist. It is electorally opposed to the BJP and seeks to maintain the binary of TMC versus BJP to marginalise the CPI(M) and the Left.”

In practice, that would translate into calibrated tactics to attack and attempt to defeat the BJP in West Bengal in constituencies where it is the most vulnerable in order to reposition the CPI(M) as the principal adversary to the Trinamool post-2026 state assembly election.