Silent coup in CPI(M)

CITU bosses in Kerala are a worried lot. Within 24 hours of the elections to the State committee on Tuesday, another politburo member E. Balanandan has issued a public statement, charging that the elections were not held in strict compliance with the party election guidelines. He has vowed to take it to the politburo.

After eliminating 11 CITU members from the State committee and bringing in 12 of his supporters in the elections, in addition to the five who had switched sides in the outgoing committee, Achuthanandan has bagged a majority in the new 80-member State committee. The weeding-out process may now be seen in the election to the more compact CPM State secretariat, due next week. The party rank-and-file has been upset for a long time that the secretariat is packed with ministers. In fact, Achuthanandan has come back with a vengeance to dominate the party machinery. The man who was touted as the shadow chief minister had suffered a humiliating defeat in the assembly elections. There were allegations that he lost in a Marxist stronghold because of sabotage by the rival faction.

Politburo member E.K. Nayanar, who had deserted the CITU group — after leading the fight against the Achuthanandan faction for a long time — 19 months ago became the Chief Minister with the support of Achuthanandan.

However, Nayanar has lost the confidence of both the groups now and is a loner in the party. It is obvious that the new State committee will be watching him carefully. There will also be increasing pressure from within the party on Nayanar and his ministers to bridge the gap between rhetoric and reality.

As Chadayan Govindan, who has been re-elected party secretary, has been in and out of hospital, it will be Achuthanandan who calls the shots. Industries, an area of great interest to CITU bosses and run by CITU nominee Suseela Gopalan, Culture and Fisheries under another pro CITU minister T.K. Ramakrishnan and Excise handled by Finance Minister Sivadasa Menon will be put under the microscope. The alleged nexus between some CITU apparatchiks and liquor barons have been creating problems for the party’s image.

The party elections will also have a bearing on the ruling coalition, LDF. The CPI(M) will soon find a replacement for LDF convener M.M. Lawrence, who was voted out of the State committee. Achuthanandan who is not liked by the CPM’s junior partners like CPI, RSP and Kerala Congress (J) is again expected to have a decisive say in the selection of the replacement. However, there is a fear that the party would get into a more conservative track, unable to grapple with economic winds blowing across the globe. Given the new dispensation’s love for the classical party line, the fears are genuine. That the defeated CITU satraps will adopt a purist posture to ideologically embarrass the leadership will make Achuthanandan’s task all the more difficult At the organisational level, Achuthanandan has won the battle and therefore he cannot opt to lose the war. Insiders say that Achuthanandan was not in the first half in the order of preference in the election to the 80-member committee. This is a warning. Achuthanandan requires vision and tact to keep powerful detractors at bay even as he carries on with his campaign against communalism, corruption and criminalisation.

Communalism, criminalisation and corruption were the three political issues that he had adroitly mixed in the campaign against his detractors over the past decade. In the Calicut party conference held six years ago, he lost the race for the post of party secretary thanks to veteran E.M.S. Namboodiripad and CITU bosses. Three years later at Kollam, he lost the battle yet again. And in the last Assembly polls, he lost in the CPM stronghold of Mararikulam, thanks to back-stabbing. The victory of Achuthanandan at the State committee is seen in the background of a history of deceit. The onus is now on the victor not to pay back in the same coin.