The CPI(M), which is gearing up for the 23rd Party Congress in Kannur from April 6 to 10, has its task cut out: to stem the marginalisation of the Left happening at the national level and to go creative in bringing down the BJP from power at the Centre.
The shrinking space at the national level is the party’s — and generally the Left’s — single major challenge. At successive Party Congresses, the CPI(M) has resolved to spread its wings further into the Hindi heartland. That has not happened. And in West Bengal and Tripura, once Left strongholds, the party is struggling to make a comeback.
Kerala, on the other side, has been a shining example of the party going in for political pragmatism, not just to stay afloat but also to secure an emphatic second successive win in the Assembly election.
But that is not enough if it is to play a key role in the Opposition mission to dislodge the BJP from the seat of power in Delhi. And in the 23rd Party Congress, long-term strategies to realise that goal is expected to be worked out.
The Central Committee meetings of the party, held in recent times to discuss the Draft Political Resolution and Organisational Report to be moved at the Party Congress, have already looked at some of these issues closely.
Most important among these is the stand to be taken towards the Congress. The Bengal line of joining hands with the Congress has been rejected in favour of a State-wise tactical understanding involving other parties, as has been done in Tamil Nadu for long. Since the other Opposition parties too are grappling with the question, the Party Congress may have to only keep the party’s options open for the crunch times.
But without Bengal and Tripura in its kitty, the party can hardly hope to play the kind of decisive role it played in the Left-UPA combination. That suits the Kerala unit of the CPI(M), which is pitted against the Congress, its main opposition in the State.
The organisational challenge is even more serious as it reflects on the composition of the party and the character of its leadership. The 2015 Kolkata Party Plenum had resolved to lift the quality of party membership, but that has hardly been a choice given the pressures at the national level. The Plenum had called for drawing the best elements of the working class and the socially oppressed sections into the party fold.
That is not exactly the case in Kerala, where the membership is largely middle-class. As it runs a government in the State, the CPI(M) is also compelled to strike a balance between the middle-class aspirations and its commitments to the working class. The emphasis on big infrastructure projects and the stern stand on issues such as trade union militancy arise from this. In comparison, political engineering has been easier for the party in Kerala with the Congress in complete disarray and the BJP finding it impossible to find a solid footing in the State.
Organisational challenges at the national level are more important when it comes to the Party Congress. The resolutions of the 2015 Kolkata Party Plenum, to which the draft political-organisational reports repeatedly harked back, had put its finger on the key issue there — the poor quality of party membership.
Barring States such as Rajasthan and Maharashtra, that does not seem to have changed anywhere else. Besides, in West Bengal and Tripura, the party sees an erosion in membership. In Kerala, the party is adding members, but the challenge is to ensure the quality of membership, which was one of the key concerns of the Kolkata Plenum.
