Congress, BJP seek propaganda advantage by exploiting dissensions in a few CPI(M) local-level committees

Opposition parties hope to portray CPI(M) as a divided house ahead of local body polls in 2025. Govindan says breaches of party discipline are rare and confined to a few local-level committees and 4,700 branch and 267 local committees successfully conducted conferences

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress appeared fixated, in varying degrees, on gaining an outsize propaganda advantage from the arguably micro-level discord in a few lower-level committees of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)].  

The supposed Congress-BJP gambit comes at an arguably vulnerable time for the CPI(M). Its area committee conferences are under way ahead of the district conferences and, later, the State conference in Kollam in January. 

Moreover, both the Opposition parties possibly hope to portray the CPI(M) as a divided house ahead of the local body polls in 2025. 

Local factionalism

More than ideological fallouts, personal disputes and local factionalism were, debatably, the main drivers of the dissensions spilling into the open at a few CPI(M) area conferences.

The latest public eruption of discord occurred during the Mangalapuram area committee conference in Thiruvananthapuram. The CPI(M) expelled former area secretary Madhu Mullassery hours before he joined the BJP. His son and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) leader Mithun Mullassery also faced the axe. 

The BJP seemed to reap some local political dividend by welcoming Bipin Babu, an expelled CPI(M) leader, to its fold in Alappuzha. 

Notably, the CPI(M) was constrained to crack the whip to quell the rift that emerged during local-level conferences in Palakkad, Karunagapally in Kollam, and Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta. 

Cong. stance

So far, the Congress has not reaped any tangible advantage in terms of defections from the CPI(M) “dissensions.”  However, not to be outpaced by the BJP, the Congress allegedly sought to make much of the speculation that the CPI(M) had sidelined veteran leader and former Minister G. Sudhakaran during the party’s conferences in Alappuzha district. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K.C. Venugopal called on Mr. Sudhakaran at the latter’s residence. Both leaders described the “drop-by” as a personal call. Mr. Sudhakaran is yet to respond to BJP State president K. Surendran’s invitation to join the party. 

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan had repeatedly sought to dispel the Congress and the BJP “inspired right-wing media spin” that the “rebellions” posed an existential threat to the party. Mr. Govindan publicly stated that breaches of party discipline were rare and confined to a few local-level committees. Around 4,700 branch and 267 local committees successfully conducted the conferences, and area committee conferences were on track across the State.

Published - December 03, 2024 09:29 pm IST