Post Kerela victory, CPM decides whom to hand over the reigns of party

This must have been a scenario that the Left leaders privately hoped they would never have to address. But with CPM veteran VS Achuthanandan and politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan romping home on Thursday with huge margins, the question of deciding who of the two will better lead the party in the assembly has become a pressing matter.
The scene will shift to AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday , when the state secretariat and state committee meet to choose the new parliamentary party leader of CPM. It is a piquant situation for many , because before the election the CPM state leadership had not even been ready to field VS for fear that his presence would spoil Vijayan's chances of becoming chief minister.

It was the central leadership of the Left party that intervened and directed that VS and Vijayan would both contest -from Malampuzha in Palakkad and Dharamdom in Kannur, respectively . The decision of the politburo to field both of them was announced to the state secretariat and state committee by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury. It was done in a manner that gave the state committee no leeway in debating the issue.

On Friday , Yechury will arrive in the capital to attend the state panel meets. The VS camp is hopeful of the central functionary's intervention and they foresee VS being elected as the leader for at least the first year of the Left Democratic Front's new tenure. The huge win of the Front is being attributed by VS's followers to the whirlwind campaign that the 92-year-old veteran had undertaken in the state. There were big crowds in attendance at almost all of VS's campaign rallies, and his supporters cite that as the reflection of his popularity in the state.

Vijayan, for long a bitter rival of VS, has absolute support in the CPM state secretariat and state committee, and sources close to him said there would be only one name proposed by Kerala unit members when the issue of who should be the party's legislative assembly leader came up for debate on Friday . “If the state committee is asked to select the leader, there will be only one name. We don't know what will happen if the central leadership suggests names on their part,“ asserted a senior CPM member.

Among central functionaries, former general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai are not in favour of giving the nonagenarian another term as chief minister. They cite his advanced age and his history of not toeing the party line as factors that disqualify him for the post.

The veteran politician enjoys the support of the Bengal lobby , but, with the kind of defeat the Bengal CPM has suffered in its own state, it is unlikely that they will intervene too strongly in the leadership tussle in Kerala.