THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) that leads Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) began its two-day state secretariat meeting here yesterday to take stock of the humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
Indications are that the party would get the process of structural readjustments rolling ahead of next year’s civic polls and the assembly polls that follows. The million-dollar question is if the party would allow Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who is still popular among the masses, to continue.
Party general secretary Prakash Karat and senior Politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai are attending the 15-member secretariat meeting which would be followed by a three-day meeting of the 84-member state committee.
After the elections, the LDF’s tally in the Lok Sabha dwindled to mere four from 19 out of 20 while the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) established supremacy in 102 of the 104 assembly segments and won 16 seats. Supporters of his archrival party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, who has absolute control over the party, want Achuthanandan to step down owning responsibility for the defeat a demand which he had already declined.
Immediately after the counting of votes were over, a visibly jubilant Achuthanandan hurriedly called a press conference at his official residence to claim that it was not a verdict against his government. The party mouthpiece Desabhimani retorted saying it would be the “last laugh” for the party detractors and the “bourgeois media who are rejoicing at the left movement’s temporary setback.”
All the 15 candidates that the CPI(M) fielded except one were identified to be loyal to Vijayan and a sulking chief minister addressed very few election meetings this time. He also refused to share the platform with radical cleric Abdunnasar Madani who campaigned for the left candidates throughout the state.
