Opinion Long march needs great leap forward by CPM
A day before CPM top boss Prakash Karat began his march to Delhi from Kolkata on March 1 came a shocker from West Bengal: the bypoll results.
A day before CPM top boss Prakash Karat began his march to Delhi from Kolkata on March 1 came a shocker from West Bengal: the bypoll results. The Left managed a win in only one of the three seats which went to polls,but the more worrying part was that its vote share in all the three constituencies dropped dramatically,indicating that the Left continues to be in the red in Bengal despite its claim that the support base of the Trinamool Congress is getting eroded.
The situation is no better in Kerala,where the feud between the factions led by V S Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan is about to explode.
It is against this backdrop that the Jatha politics the CPM has undertaken should be analysed and viewed. Karat and colleagues Sitaram Yechury,Brinda Karat and S R Pillai are crisscrossing the country on road,talking about the Lefts alternative policies in a bid to regain their lost base.
The partys central committee may have forced the bigwigs to take to the road but the question remains whether the attempt to reconnect with the masses ahead of 2014 will bear results if the CPM doesn’t put its house in order in Kerala and infuse a sense of purpose and vigour in its Bengal leadership.
Abdur Rezzak Mollahs observation that the CPM lacked a leader to overcome the challenges it was facing in Bengal has many takers within the party.
More importantly,the Left is still not able to coin a new slogan or put forward a fresh idea which captures the imagination of the masses. Whether the CPM and Left can stage a revival and regain its relevance at the national level by continuing to bank on its old,slightly outdated,policy prescriptions is a big question.
CPM leaders may cite their recent victory in Tripura,but it is hardly a secret that it was more a personal victory for Manik Sarkar than for the party.
If the slogans put forth for the jatha indicate,however,there is no change in the CPMs approach. Not has there been any major attempt to rid the CPM of its bureaucratic style of functioning. The partys hopes to increase its tally in 2014 then largely depend on a three-way vote split in Bengal and anti-incumbency in Kerala.
Manoj is a special correspondent based in Delhi
manoj.cg@expressindia.com
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