Thiruvananthapuram: The decision of the CPM central committee not to have an electoral understanding with the Congress on Sunday showed the increasing grip the Kerala unit has on the party. The unit feared that a tie-up would undermine the chances of party candidates in Kerala and benefit the BJP. Finance minister Thomas Isaac, however, wanted the party to take the Bengal situation into consideration while finalising the tactical line. Earlier, senior CPM leader V.S. Achuthanandan had also come out in support of an alliance with Congress.
Sources added that the party's West Bengal unit and a large section of the Tripura unit favoured the resolution moved by Sitaram Yechury which wanted a UPA-I like political alliance where the party extended outside support to the Congress government at the Centre. Since 2014, the CPM has held several meetings of the Politburo and Central Committees to resolve the issue. However, it was ineffective as a section resisted any attempt to water down the party's opposition to neo-liberal economic policies pursued by Congress and other secular parties.
Mr Yechury's draft had proposed the formation of a Left Democratic Front as a political alternative comprising all secular forces in the umbrella coalition. Though he had to water down the draft and agreed not to exclude the ruling class parties from the proposed electoral front as a consensus, Karat faction insisted on no truck with Congress policy. The last time the Communists faced two separate drafts was in 1964 and it eventually led to the split of the undivided Communist Party giving birth to the CPM.
