By P. Sreekumaran
A crucial three-day CPI(M) State Committee meeting is being held in Kozhikode from tomorrow, September 13. The panel is meeting against the backdrop of the serious setback the party-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) suffered in the 2026 Assembly elections.
Among other things, the committee will discuss a report prepared by it on the poll debacle, after two days of discussions among State Committee and State Secretariat members. The Central Committee (CC) has already published a review report on the Assembly elections.
The meeting is essentially a course correction exercise. Incidentally, it is being held in the shadow of the mounting troubles for the party in the wake of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) move to implicate Polit Bureau member and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Pinarayi Vijayan and his son-in-law and State secretariat member P.A. Mohammed Riyas in corruption cases.
The political witch-hunt has come at a time when the CPI(M) is struggling to get its act together post-Assembly poll verdict.
The meeting is likely to be stormy as the perceived personality cult, imperious and unacceptable public behaviour of some leaders and related aberrations are expected to be discussed generating more heat than in the past.
The focus, in particular, will be on the highly embarrassing loss in party strongholds such as Taliparamba, Payyannur and Thrikkaripur in North Malabar, which have stood by the party through thick and thin in the past. It reflects a deep desire not only at the top level but also among the rank and file for meaningful and major changes.
The overwhelming view in the party is that there can no more be window-dressing. The setback has shaken the party to the very core. And the luxury of tinkering simply won’t do. The meeting, therefore, will, in all probability, discuss steps aimed at firming up the organization and ensuring greater transparency and accountability on the part of the leaders. The style of functioning of the party is set to undergo a major transformation with the accent, hereafter, on home visits and neighbourhood gatherings. The emergence of a genuine revamp aimed at reconnecting with the people is on the cards.
Moreover, organisational wrinkles will be ironed out by giving more powers to the district committee members to oversee and guide the local and branch committees. The style of functioning of class organisations is also set for a major change in view of the changes in social and class structures.
It may be noted that the Polit Bureau (PB) has already initiated an exercise to identify “parliamentary deviations, absence of collective leadership and lack of adherence to a mass line” among the senior leaders in both the PB and the Central Committee. A notable feature of this exercise will be the distribution of a detailed questionnaire. The State Committees, which have been given the questionnaire will be required to complete the process by December this year.
The three-day state Committee meeting will be followed by extended district committee meetings in October.
The rectification programme envisages steps to strengthen the unity of the LDF and campaigns to arrest the growth of the Sangh Parivar in the State. This is an essential pre-requisite in the preparations for the grim and protracted political battles ahead. The action plan, expected to be readied at the three-day conclave will be reviewed periodically, too.
The spotlight will also be on the speech made by Pinarayi at a CPI(M) rally at Mayyil in Taliparamba, a party stronghold which it lost to UDF-supported CPI(M) rebel T. K. Govindan in the assembly election. The rally saw Pinarayi making a fervent appeal to the party’s supporters in the constituency to realize their mistakes and work towards strengthening the party. Pinarayi was referring to the LDF supporters who voted for Govindan. An ‘opportunist’ like Govindan has won from Taliparamba and the party candidate defeated, Vijayan pointed out. But the loss need not be viewed as the end of the party’s political prospects or as a permanent change in the constituency’s political allegiance.
What is causing grave concern to the CPI(M) is the fact that the LDF’s vote-share in Taliparamba has plummeted from over 52 per cent in 2021 to about 41 % in the last election. Govindan contested the election as a CPI(M) rebel in protest against the candidature of P.K. Shymala, wife of CPI(M) State secretary M. V. Govindan.
Pinarayi also singled out V. Kunhikrishnan, who contested as an Independent and won from Payyannur, another CPI(M) stronghold. He had contested as an Independent leaving the party, to protest against the candidature of Madhusudhanan. Kunhikrishnan won defeating Madhusudhanan in a prestigious battle. The LoP accused him of joining hands with the rivals of the CPI(M) and contributing to the party candidate’s loss in Payyannur. The party’s vote-shared, which was over 62 per cent in 2021 had fallen to 44% this time. The big erosion of traditional CPI(M) votes, Pinarayi added, was a major concern. Pinarayi’s speeches at Taliparamba and Payyannur are being construed as a calculated exercise to frustrate any attempt at the State Committee meeting to demand that he step down as the LoP.
The meeting will be attended by around 300 people, among them State Committee members, district secretariat members and members of the party’s mass organisations Polit Bureau members will also be present, said Organising committee chairman P. A. Mohammed Riyas said. CPI(M) General Secretary M. A. Baby will open the meeting on September 13 at the AKG Auditorium near the CPI(M) Kozhikode district committee office. The meeting will conclude with a public rally, which would culminate at the Freedom Square on the Kozhikode beach on September 15. (IPA Service)
