A crucial meeting was being held at room number 43 of Hotel Maruti in Ernakulam, Kerala, immediately after the Assembly elections of 1965. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) had won 40 seats, the Kerala Congress State Committee (KC) had won 23 seats and the Indian National Congress (INC) had won 36 seats.
There were only 3 people in the room – CPM leader EMS Namboodiripad, Kerala Congress leader KM George and Surendra Mohan, leader of the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP). The SSP had won 13 seats and these three parties together made up 76 seats of the 133-strong Kerala Assembly, enough to form government.
Who would be the Chief Minister, was the question. Veteran leader Namboodiripad, or EMS as he was better known, agreed to KM George’s candidature to the post but with two conditions – he had to make an open declaration against the arrest of CPM members and their branding as anti-nationals by the Jawaharlal Nehru government which toppled the Left government in 1959, imposing President’s Rule and forcing elections on the state. The second condition was that the state Assembly would pass a resolution against the arrest of CPM leaders in its very first meeting.
KM George dithered. Having been witness to the crackdown on the only non-Congress state government in the country by the powerful INC at the Centre, he did not want to openly defy them. He asked EMS to soften his stance. With that, the possibility of forming the government ceased to exist.
This, in effect, say political analysts characterises the legend that is EMS – a visionary, firebrand Communist leader who put party and ideology uncompromisingly above all else.