The CPM is a divided house in Kerala, shattering the LDF'shope. Perhaps, due to its close proximity with the Congress, in the name of anti BJPism, the CPM has acquired all the trademark qualities of its ally like group war, personality cult, back-stabbing, intolerance, character-assassination and most importantly corruption and criminalisation of politics.
With resounding victories in the Lok Sabha polls of 2004, local body polls and bye-election to lok sabha in Thiruvananthapuram in 2005, the general perception was that the LDF will gain power with a massive mandate in the coming polls. In order to strengthen his position for Chief Minister'schair the CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan embarked on a month long ?Kerala March? which was not to the liking of his beta-noire in CPM group politics, leader of opposition V.S. Atchudanandan.
The CPM politburo decision not to ally with Karunakaran'sDIC (K) came as a bombshell to both Pinarayi and Karunakaran. Pinarayi had hoped to use Karunakaran to outsmart his foe V.S. and to show the CPI, and the RSP etc. their place. Pinarayi'snext shock came when reports came from Delhi that the party is contemplating to make S. Ramachandran Pillai the Chief Minister candidate, as there is a strong tie-up between him and V.S. SRP is a politburo member based in Delhi and although he belongs to Kerala, he has not involved in day-to-day CPM politics in his state. There are reports the SRP was behind the politburo'sdecision not to ally with Karunakaran. As a result SRP, who was earlier pro-Pinarayi and hence anathema to V.S., has now become V.S. favourite and Pinarayi'senemy.
Next came the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy'sdecision to hand over the SNC-Lavlin-KSEB deal of Rs. 376 crore to the CBI. Kerala has been rocked over corruption in this deal for upgrading of hydel projects and CPM and Congress are blaming each other for the loss incurred. While both of them were trying to sink the case, the Vigilance Director filed cases against top KSEB officials in vigilance court. This led to a public outcry since politicians like Pinarayi Vijayan (Power Minister in LDF regime) and G. Karthikeyan (Power Minister in UDF regime) were let scot-free. So Chandy decided to hand over the case to the CBI. This has led to a serious crisis in the CPM and there are reports that Pinarayi may be ordered not to contest the polls. Similarly demands for sacking Pinarayi from the State Secretary'spost have also came up in the CPM due to his over-enthusiasm in allying with Karunakaran and due to his corrupt deals in the SNC-Lavlin case. Moreover, support for V.S is growing in the politburo. He may become Chief Minister or State Secretary if SRP becomes CM. Pinarayi who dreamed of CM'schair may be forced to lose his present seat and be sidelined.
The group war continues unabated in the CPM despite the poll dates nearing. The public service award given to V.S. by a pro-CPM art & literary society at Alapuzha (his home district) has become a bone of contention between V.S and Pinarayi. Pinarayi group has complained to the politburo that the programme was highly individual-centric, not akin to communist ideology, and was with the sole intention of projecting V.S as CM. This is Pinarayi'srevenge against the V.S. group for not co-operating with the Kerala March. The north-south divide in the CPM earlier led by Nayanar-V.S. has now come down to Pinarayi-V.S. The north Kerala group always dominated the show trouncing those from the south. Earlier E.M.S. became Chief Minister by sidelining T.V. Thomas. Later, E.K. Nayanar became Chief Minister three times by overtaking K.R. Gowriamma, Susheela Gopalan (wife of AKG) and lastly V.S. had to face defeat at the red fort of Mararikulam in Alapuzha due to cross-voting by Nayanar group.
Right from 2001, the CPM has been trying hard to wean away the 45 per cent Christian and Muslim votes from the Congress-led UDF. It met with sufficient success in this endeavour since it won 18 out of 20 seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, even capturing the seat of Ponnani from the Muslim League in its bastion of Malappuram district. Its state conference was also held in Malappuram to woo the Muslims to its fold. It gave support to the jehadi organisation?NDF?and Pinarayi visited the Markaz of Kanthapuram Musaliar and declared that the CPM was not against Islam. But in a major setback to this move, the clashes that erupted between CPM and Muslim League in the CPM red fort of Kannur have ended its honeymoon with the Muslims. The fact is that the CPM is basically a Hindu force in Kerala and attempts by it to hobnob with the Muslims and its extremist outfit met with strong resistance from its Hindu cadres, especially in North Kerala. In the clashes and violence that followed several CPM and its feeders offices, league offices, shops, establishments, etc., worth crores were destroyed. Several on both sides were attacked and gravely injured. Payyannur, Thaliparambu and Thalassery bore the brunt of the attacks and a bomb was thrown at a mosque. The net result is that Muslim League and NDF are describing CPM and RSS as two sides of the same coin. The loss of Muslim votes will be a serious set-back for the CPM, which is masquerading as a saviour of the minorities but is acting violently against them in its strong hold.
The seat-sharing exercise between the CPM and its allies like CPI, RSP, NCP has hurt their unity. The CPM which was contesting 77 out of the total 140 seats, now wants to contest in 90 seats. This means that its allies like CPI, RSP etc. will have to surrender 13 seats, for which they are not relenting. The CPI wants to increase its quota from 24 to 28 seats. The CPI wants seats in Pathanamthitta and Kannur districts. The RSP wants to take back the Harippad seat which it had surrendered to the CPM in 2001. Moreover, the move to give the Kundara seat in Kollam district to CPM ideologue M.A. Baby has met with strong resistance from CPI and RSP. The talks are dead-locked as allies are not willing to grab the leftovers thrown by big-brother CPM. There are also reports that Pinarayi will have a secret truck with Karunakaran to defeat several V.S loyalists and CPI/RSP stalwarts, who blocked LDF-DIC(K) ties.
In order to divert the public attention from its internal war, the CPM State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has started repeating his pet slogan of a UDF-BJP secret truck. Sonia while addressing a state Congress meet had exhorted the people of Kerala to vote against the politics of obstruction, destruction, restriction, violence, gherao and false propaganda of the CPM. Taking a cue out of this, Pinarayi declared, ?Sonia has attacked CPM, but has not said anything against the BJP, so there is a secret tie-up between the Congress and the BJP.? This is nothing but a CPM ploy to corner the Muslim/Christian votes by geobbeling a UDF-BJP tie-up, for the past two decades. Actually it is the CPM which has been voting Muslim League candidates in Kasargod and Manjeshwar constituencies to prevent the BJP'sentry into assembly, thereby moving to the third position in these seats.
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