Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Stage set for CPI(M) meet

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Everything is set for the three-day Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central committee meeting being held in Kochi after a gap of 40 years.

The meeting, which would focus on the party’s preparations for the coming Lok Sabha elections, would discuss the general strategy of the party as also the States’ specific alliances that are now in the making.

The strengths and weaknesses of the party and the Left in West Bengal and Kerala would naturally get specific attention, but perhaps not as intensely as is being made out by sections of the media here.

The party has entered into alliances with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh and is currently in the process of holding discussions with various other regional formations on the prospect of a joint electoral battle, the general objective of the CPI(M) being weaning away as many parties as possible from both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

The party’s efforts to build a third alternative before the elections have not reached full fruition, but the efforts for State-specific alliances have, in effect, created a loose network of anti-BJP, anti-Congress political formations which could gel well as the poll mercury rises.

This might well see the party injecting a little flexibility into its political strategy in various States so as to accommodate forces such as the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the anti-Congress, anti-BJP space even when the CPI(M) does not fully subscribe to their positions on specific issues.

The State CPI(M) is using the Central committee meeting as an occasion to activate its cadres across the State on poll eve.

As part of this strategy, it has organised two major rallies, one in Alappuzha and the other in Kochi.

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