Straight bat: Cadre out of touch with bosses on poll arena

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM may still be confused about Wadakkancherry but KPAC Lalitha is not. Many others, who had watched the rebellion on the streets against her candidature, are not, either.

Theatrics associated with candidatures have been the stuff of electoral politics for Congress and non-Left parties. This time around, party members and supporters are flouting the organizational discipline just as they did in 2006 and 2011 for the sake for V S Achuthanandan.

On those two occasions, the fight was not localized but centralized, to ensure a seat for Mr Achuthanandan. But now several district committees are confused and have popped lists that are not what the party leadership wanted. Why, because the sweaty, lusty cadre have always itched for a political fight.

The pre-poll scene looks slapstick; Mukesh in Kollam, Ashokan offering himself for Haripad and Lalu Alex readying to jump on to the Left bandwagon.  Sounds interesting, for the cinema crowd. The party workers would appreciate fielding a prominent personality from outside the party to fetch a difficult seat and that is eminently political but importing second league dramatis personae to run a proxy contest has become controversial.

There was not even a whimper when film director Lenin Rajendran was fielded against diplomat K R Narayanan (Congress) in Ottapalam because the cadre accepted that the party had not a rival to him. So was it when it fielded travel buff S K Pottekad against literator Sukumar Azhikode.

But times have changed. The cadre seem no more hemmed in by the Leninist organizational discipline. The vie between iron-clad party discipline and parliamentary deviation, to use a CPM term for self-promotion for elections, has become inevitable.

In spite of democratic centralism, the core principle that governs the CPM, the cadre spill over to the streets just as factional fights in the Congress saw the disgruntled workers do it.

Says political commentator K Venu: “This has been a virtual implosion. The cadre, unable to contain their resentment, are pouring out on the streets and making themselves heard. This is parliamentary mode of political work”.

The Kerala poll scene is yet to pick up. The Congress candidate list is still in the making. Yet a revolt is brewing. None other than KPCC president V M Sudheeran has set himself against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Was it so plain lofty that he posted on Facebook a letter he had sent to the CM?

Mr Sudheeran’s protégé T N Prathapan has opted out of electoral contest, saying he has been an MLA thrice. There again Mr Sudheeran is setting a Kamaraj plan to retire oldies. To checkmate Mr Sudheeran, the other factions met at the residence of Culture Minister K C Joseph on Monday and decided on a joint strategy against.

Such is the latitude that parliamentary politics offers.   Now, the CPM workers, dismayed by the filmi crowd, can take heart. If Congressmen decide to rough it out for seats, it will be a real blast.