The CPI(M) is likely to announce its list of candidates for the Assembly elections on Wednesday.
The party hoped to draw to close internal bickering prompted by speculative reports on candidate selection with the declaration. The final list would also ostensibly prime the party for a robust election campaign.
The scale of the seemingly spontaneous protests by CPI(M) workers at Ponnani in Malappuram against the probable candidature of P. Nandakumar appeared to have startled the party. The activists wanted the CPI(M) to name T. Siddique in Nandakumar’s stead.
Banner of revolt
CPI(M) cadres marched with an ominous banner: “The party would correct the leaders. The people would correct the party.” The optics of the ‘mutinous’ party workers, many of them Muslim women, did not augur well for the CPI(M)’s image of unity.
On Wednesday, the CPI(M) despatched party veteran Paloli Muhammad Kutty to conciliate the ‘mutinous’ workers. Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan and Mr. Siddique reportedly accompanied him. Mr. Siddique publicly disavowed the procession taken out in his name.
By one account, the CPI(M) send a clear message to the “rebellious branch committees” in Ponanni that it would not tolerate public displays of disaffection with the leadership.
Moreover, the party line on candidate selection, including the exclusion of members who have contested twice, would hold.
The protests in Ponnani triggered scores of anti-CPI(M) memes on social media. The images insinuated that Islamist elements had infiltrated the CPI(M) in Malappuram, and the party’s district leadership was compromised.
A CPI(M) insider attributed the campaign to Sangh Parivar troll farms.
Poster campaigns
The CPI(M) had faced poster campaigns against the supplanting of popular leaders by relatively new faces in Alappuzha, Kozhikode, Kannur and Ernakulam districts.
Its veteran in Kannur, P. Jayarajan, had distanced himself from an online campaign for his candidature.
CPI(M) State secretariat member M.V. Govindan said disagreements were usual in the party. Still, it should occur within the CPI(M)’s constitutional bounds.
A party insider said the CPI(M) Polit Bureau was vetting the party’s State secretariat's list. Major alterations were unlikely. The CPI(M) hoped to contest in at least 87 seats.
