Fresh Faces, New Guard: The Left Party's Bid to Reverse Its Decline

CPI(M) was right in pointing that BJP remains a threat in Bengal, and recently in Kerala, writes Sagarneel Sinha.

Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, party's interim coordinator Prakash Karat, CPI(M) politburo member Biman Bose, CPI General Secretary D Raja, and other leaders during the 24th party congress of CPI(M) in Madurai.

(Photo: PTI)

Former Kerala minister MA Baby was appointed the new general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] in the recently concluded five-day-long 24th party congress held in Madurai.

This was expected with the party's general secretary Sitaram Yechury passing away last year—and former general secretary Prakash Karat managing the role of the national coordinator for the time being.

CPI(M) interim coordinator Prakash Karat speaks during the 24th party congress.

(Photo: PTI)

The Politburo, the party’s daily decision-making top body, bid adieu to seven of its members, including Prakash Karat, his wife and party’s woman face Brinda Karat, and former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar citing their age. The party mandates the upper-age limit at 75 for the Politburo. The 18-member top body also saw an inclusion of eight new faces. On the other hand, the 85-member Central Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, saw an induction of 31 new faces.

These changes make the Madurai conference significant. A party often criticised for clinging to the status quo and hesitating to introduce new faces is now showing a crucial willingness to embrace change.

By retiring the old faces, that too without any bitter internal rebellion, signals its readiness to experiment with fresh perspectives.

The Dominance of the Kerala Faction

Having lost its strongholds in West Bengal (2011) and Tripura (2018), Kerala now stands as the Left party's sole remaining bastion. This became even more obvious with Baby's appointment for the party’s top post.

Unlike his predecessors, Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat, who were also from South India, Baby doesn’t have much exposure to national politics.

Karat was a Malayali but wasn’t much connected to the state politics of Kerala. With Baby being a former state minister, it is expected that he is likely to have a role in deciding the party’s affairs of the state, where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has emerged as a strong leader within the party’s state unit.

Vijayan, despite being 79 years of age, was given another extension in the Politburo, keeping in mind the Kerala elections to be held next year. According to reports, it is the Kerala faction led by Vijayan that backed Baby for the top post—this shows the kind of dominance the Kerala faction has in the party.

Baby comes from the minority Christian community, which has a population of 18 percent and has the potential in deciding the government. His appointment – the first one from the Christian community for the party’s top post – comes at a time when there have been rising concerns among the Christians regarding the Muslim appeasement in the state with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also intensifying its efforts to utilise this scenario to get the support of the community.

Although the CPI(M)-led Left made some gains among the community, the Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey pointed out that the majority of the Christians in the last state elections favoured the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). By appointing Baby for the top post, it seems the Left party’s aim is to send a positive message to the community to increase its support.  

West Bengal Remains a Primary Concern

During the Madurai party congress, the fragile state of affairs in West Bengal emerged as the primary concern. Even the Malayali comrades, who have enjoyed power for the past nine years, concurred that the party must reclaim its former stronghold to regain its significance in national politics. Both West Bengal and Kerala are set to hold elections next year.

The situation in Bengal is different with the party knowing that the fight isn’t about coming to power in 2026. It is about breaking the zero-jinx, which has become a trend since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and to increase its strength in the state Assembly.

That Bengal remains important is seen in the increase of its representation from 13 to 15 – with the inclusion of five new members – in the newly formed Central Committee. The prominent new face to be included is Minakshi Mukherjee, the 40-year-old youth leader who has emerged as the crowd puller for the Left party in recent times.

Her induction in the body signals the approval of her growing stature in the party—and the keenness of the party to provide importance to the young leaders.

Along with Minakshi, another woman to have made it to the Central Committee, is Kaninika Ghosh, the state secretary of the party’s All India Democratic Women’s Association. This strategy to give space to the women is a step in the right direction, because over the last many years, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has strengthened her political career with the help of the women vote bank, carefully built over the years through welfare schemes. Without getting this vote bank back, it won’t be possible for the Left to revive in the state.

Another important addition to the Central Committee is Saman Pathak, a trade union leader from North Bengal. This is significant because after a long time, a representative from the region got a place in the highest body. In the region, even after the downfall of its 34-year-old citadel, the CPI(M)-led Left Front was able to somehow show its strength in the 2013 three-tier panchayat elections. However, since then, it has lost ground with the BJP gradually turning the region as its stronghold, reducing the CPI(M) into a weak force.

The Other Main Concern: Tripura

Apart from Kerala, the northeastern state of Tripura presents a potential opportunity for the CPI(M) to regain power—provided they play their cards right.

The party’s primary weakness in the state is the erosion of the tribals who account for 31% of the population. Without gaining the support of the tribals, a large section of whom are supporters of the royal scion Pradyot Debbarma-led TIPRA Motha, an ally of the BJP, the party has no chance to come back to power.

However, in recent times, there have been signs of slight erosion in Motha’s dominance. In this current scenario, the induction of state party secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, a prominent tribal face who is also the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, as the lone representative in the Politburo assumes significance.

Notably, this is the first time that a tribal from the state has been inducted into the Politburo, which now has two tribals — the other being Ramchandra Dome, a tribal leader and former Lok Sabha MP from Bengal.

Apart from Chaudhury, Naresh Jamatia, president of the Gana Mukti Parishad (GMP), the party’s tribal wing, made it to the Central Committee as a new face. On the other hand, Krishna Rakshit was inducted in the committee as the woman face from the state.

Challenges That Persist

Although the CPI(M) implemented notable reforms during the Madurai conference, it still faces considerable challenges ahead.

The party was right in pointing that the BJP remains a main threat as from Bengal to Tripura, and recently in Kerala, there has been a trend of the CPI(M) supporters, particularly its Hindu voters, moving towards the saffron party.

The party still lacks a clear strategy to counter the saffron party, especially as many Hindu voters feel their sentiments are overlooked by its leaders. Although the Madurai party congress emphasised engaging with religious voters and clarified it isn't against any religion, the party's "strict atheist image" continues to hurt its appeal among religious voters.

The party’s failure to deal with religious sentiments as well as regional aspirations has already dealt a big blow in the Hindi-belt states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the 1990s. In these states, where it once had some pockets of strongholds, the Left party never recovered.

The CPI(M) must prioritise the Hindi belt given its large population. Gaining influence there is crucial for achieving national prominence. While the party has taken notable steps, such as including farmer leader and Lok Sabha MP Amra Ram from Rajasthan in the Politburo and supporting the caste census, it still needs to develop strategies to address the religious and caste-based polarisations prevalent in the region.

Additionally, the party’s decision to strengthen its independent strength across the country is important, especially considering its recent alliances with the Congress in West Bengal and Tripura during the last Assembly elections. These collaborations proved counterproductive for the Left, leading to a noticeable weakening of its organisational strength, particularly in Bengal.

The emphasis to strengthen individual strength indicates that the party is aware of the ground realities, and like other non-BJP parties, it is not keen to cede space to the Congress in its strongholds in the name of an alliance. It has to be mentioned that in the era of the BJP's dominance, the Left party has come closer to the Congress — barring Kerala. Both are partners of the Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc at the central level.

Ultimately, how the new Central Committee led by MA Baby confronts the BJP organisationally and strategically across the country will determine the revival of the Left party in national politics.

(Sagarneel Sinha is a political commentator and tweets @SagarneelSinha. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)