THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The shockingly vicious outburst against CPM’s move to field KPAC Lalitha as its candidate from Wadakkanchery was enough indication, if at all one was needed, that the rank and file spurned imported leaders.
But CPM’s practice of fielding ideologically vague candidates is as old as the first Assembly elections. In 1957, the Communist Party of India had fielded five non-party candidates. Of these three were made ministers; Joseph Mundassery (education), V R Krishna Iyer (Home and power), and A R Menon (health).
In fact, A R Menon was a Congress leader till he made a last-minute switch. In a way, April 5 can also be observed as the 49th anniversary of such an electoral strategy; the first EMS Ministry, with three non-party ministers, was sworn in on April 5, 1957.
“There is nothing wrong in using independent candidates to widen the acceptability of the party in certain pockets. But the latest choices of the party smacks of conspiratorial politics,” said political expert Dr Josukutty C K. He said Kollam is a place where CPM has deep influence. “They didn’t even need a big leader like Gurudasan, any middle-level CPM leader would have done the trick.”
Dr J Prabhash, former Kerala University Pro VC, said that the practice would harm the party in the long run. It will demoralise the workers, and eventually render the party defunct in such areas, he feels.
This reluctance to galvanise the cadre in unfavourable areas has already harmed the party in Malappuram. “The Liberation Struggle had distanced the party from minorities and CPM has not been able to neutralise the antipathy in places like Malappuram,” said Gopan Mukundan, a Kerala Sasthra Parishad activist. He cites this as reason for the high number of independent LDF candidates in Malappuram.
The intentions of popular faces are also suspect. “Make no mistake, these stars are not entering politics, they are only entering the Assembly,” Dr Prabhash warns. “If they wanted to serve the people, they should have shown the willingness to fight for a local body seat first,” Dr Prabhash said.
