Tie talks unnerve CPM state leaders

Between now and Thursday, the CPM central committee will have disposed of the question of an alliance or electoral adjustment with Congress in West Bengal, but the Kerala leadership is unnerved. They do not even concede the question is on the party agenda.

But Opposition leader V. S. Achuthanandan, the prominent dissenter, has openly appreciated the West Bengal State committee’s overwhelming support for an alliance with Congress to take on Trinamool Congress. “The central committee will dispose of this question after discussing the Bengal position”, Mr Achuthanandan told reporters on Saturday, leaning towards the pro-Congress tactical line mooted by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

The approach to Congress has been the unrelenting existential question facing the CPM cadre, always nurtured on a stiff dose of anti-Congressism. Most Congressmen are viscerally opposed to Communists.

In Kerala, the unthinkable happened in 1980 when a prominent section of Congressmen, led by Mr A K Antony, broke off and joined the Nayanar ministry. This was short-lived as the Antony Congress quit the front in 1981, unable to tolerate the ‘Big Brother’. Much later, Democratic Indira Congress, led by K Karunakaran, hobnobbed with CPM.

But for these punctuations in history, Communists saw Congress as a class enemy. There were differences over Indian Independence and approach to China and erstwhile Soviet Union. One reason for the CPI split in 1964 was dominant leadership’s cosying up to Congress.   

It looks the jinx may be broken sooner. In West Bengal, the CPM faces the prospect of a second consecutive rout in the Assembly elections, which could be curtains. This existential crisis is sought to be overcome with a realpolitik tie-up with Congress, which is more a mathematical reality than ideological congruence.  The major fascist threat from the right-wingers is a common factor for both Congress and the Left parties, who believe in marshalling forces to fight the BJP and its mentor, RSS.

But the tactical line adopted by the party’s highest decision-making body in Visakhapatnam last year said: “The main direction of our attack should be against the BJP when it is in power but this cannot mean having an electoral understanding with the Congress. Neither should there be an approach that the main task of fighting neoliberal policies should be subordinated to the fight against communalism.” Which shows the antipathy to Congress cannot be just wished away.

Back home in Kerala, CPM does not want to be seen as Congress B team. It fears erosion in its cadre base once it dilutes its opposition to Congress. But, Mr Chandy told DC that he was not overly concerned about the possible impact in Kerala of the national leadership’s pro-Left tactical line in Bengal. “We are confident of taking on the CPM here and there will be no confusion in our ranks on the main electoral adversary”, he said.

Mr Chandy dismisses the query whether this would not benefit BJP, which is jockeying for political space between the UDF and the LDF. Many believe the disenchanted CPM cadre would swing towards BJP than Congress. Mr Chandy perhaps reckons BJP will still remain a poor third.