THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM politburo member M A Baby clarified that the merger of CPM and CPI was not on the agenda.
Mr Baby told DC that merger of the two parties was not on the cards. “The left parties have decided to coordinate their activities more effectively at state and national level. This was also evident from the presence of the representatives of all major left parties at the 21st party Congress in Visakhapatnam. Our class and mass organisations are conducting joint struggles. These struggles would be further strengthened, expanded and intensified in future build a strong left front,” he added.
He said the left parties were now focussing on united action and on enhancing their independent organisational strength.
“At the moment we are concentrating on building a strong left front by taking up the common issues of various sections of people. During the course of such mass agitations, the unity between the left parties would get further strengthened. But we cant say that it will eventually lead to merger,” he said.
Mr Baby’s statement comes close on the heels of newly elected general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s statement that the merger of CPM and CPI was certain though there was no time-frame.
While the exercise to expand the left front is on at the national level, it is no secret that the electoral and organisational strength of the left parties was dwindling across many states.
CPI is on the verge of losing its national party status.
The huge electoral set back and virtual decimation in many states suffered in the 2015 Lok Sabha elections, has made the left leaders sit up and think about fresh strategies. The left leadership now realises that unless they came closer, the future of communist parties would be bleak.
