CPI(M) meeting to take stand on Congress

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. File (Source: PTI)

The three-day meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee which began on Friday is to decide on the party’s political line and its position in relation to the Congress party. The meeting comes ahead of the party congress scheduled for April next year.

At the 22nd party congress held in Hyderabad in April 2018, the CPI(M) had taken a call that the Congress and the BJP could not be treated as equal threat. The party had agreed to rally all “secular and democratic forces.” It had also agreed to have an understanding with all “secular opposition parties” including the Congress inside and outside the Parliament for a broader mobilisation of people. But in all this, there was a caveat that there can be no political alliance with the Congress party.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, according to the sources, argued that the situation under which the 2018 line was decided had not changed and there was no reason to reopen the debate. He further said that after the second consecutive victory of the BJP in the 2019 general elections the threat from the right wing had only aggravated and therefore there was a need to reinforce the 2018 line. Nearly 20 delegates spoke at the meeting on the first day.

Vijayan’s view

Last week, in an article in the CPI(M) magazine Chintha, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote that the Congress could not be the axis of the opposition. In all the States, apart from Kerala, Congress leaders are abandoning the party to join the BJP, and therefore, there are very few characteristic differences between the two. Sources said Mr. Vijayan, who spoke on Friday at the meeting, articulated on similar lines. He also advocated concentrating the party’s energies on the grassroot mobilisations.

The political resolution approved by the Polit Bureau last week was laid before the Central Committee. The committee meeting concludes on Sunday.

The party congress has to take a call on Mr. Yechury’s tenure. His first term comes to a close. And the CPI(M) has often offered the incumbent General Secretary two terms.