A comrade in his labyrinth

Time is against the octogenarian. Achuthanandan will have to wait till 2011 for another go at chief ministership. To recapture the party from Pinarayi Vijayan, he will have to wait for three more years when the next organisational elections are due. Having raised the pitch against Pinarayi to such high levels, to accept the party mandate to be a figure head of the LDF8217;s ensuing poll campaign would be seen as abject surrender by his fans. At the same time, to continue in the old vein of plotting and planning against his opponents from inside would only precipitate his ouster from the party. The state leadership is already on the alert against any attempt to sabotage the electoral prospects of key party candidates like M.A. Baby and Dr Thomas Issac, who are closely identified with Pinarayi.

Other than going for the gamble of a split in the state unit, the only hope for the veteran is to patiently try to win over the central leadership to his side and persuade them to effect an interim change in the organisational set-up of the state to his satisfaction after the polls. The Politburo which grudgingly accepted the move to keep Achuthanandan out of the state has still high regard for his service to the party and his popularity in the state despite his long record of factional intrigues. It has also a few problems with his hardline ideological posturing as long as it does not come in the way of the running a party government in a state where there is still a premium on uppity leftism among its vast middle class.

The struggle in the state CPM has little to do with ideology. Nor is it a clash between reformists and hardliners. Achuthanandan8217;s present contrarian views, be it on availing oneself of ADB loans, putting up with Coca-Cola or building an Express High Way were efforts to show up Pinarayi in poor light. His charges of hidden foreign hand in the path-breaking campaign for decentralised planning undertaken by the last CPM government, were personally targeted at Dr Thomas Issac. It may be recalled that all his present inner party foes including Pinarayi, Issac and Baby were his lieutenants in his last factional feud with the trade union bosses in the state party led by former Politburo member, E. Balanadan, who is now on his side in the fight against Pinarayi.

Pinarayi is as much a hardliner as Achuthanandan in his staunch anti-Congressism and on party discipline. Both are quintessential partymen. However, Pinarayi is a more seasoned political realist in day-to-day policies of development. Despite wild allegations of corruption by his detractors, Pinarayi is as clean as Achuthanandan in public life. He has the knack of winning and retaining the loyalty of leading party cadres while Achuthandan is generally distrustful of even those close to him. Pinarayi does not play to the gallery or go after the media to boost his public image. Feeling himself sidelined in the party, Achuthandan has come to revel in both. The difference in their leadership traits largely explain the contours of the personal power struggle within the state CPM and will also decide its outcome.

More immediately, the eruption of the factional strife in the open on the eve of the crucial assembly poll, in which the CPM-led LDF still remains a clear front-runner, has put Pinarayi in a win-win situation. If Achuthanandan breaks the party or undermines its poll prospects to spite the state leadership, he will only consolidate his hold on the organisation and the central leadership. If Achuthanandan decides to lie low and works wholeheartedly to ensure a big LDF victory, the credit will still go to Pinarayi. And with an LDF government under Pinarayi loyalist Paloli Muhammed in power and Pinarayi in continued command of the party, Achuthanandan8217;s chances of a comeback can only further recede. For him it is a Catch-22 situation as his restive supporters wait for the gambit.