The just-concluded meeting of it Extended Central Committee (ECC) here has been an exercise in soul-searching for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) even as its heart (West Bengal) is bleeding.

More than anything else, the entire thrust of the four-day session was on saving the “heart” and, as one senior leader put it, the skin (Kerala) of the party.

An adverse outcome in West Bengal and Kerala, where crucial elections to the Assemblies are due in 2011, would spell a certain doom for the CPM in the country as a whole. Hence, the party devoted most of the time during the four days to a “serious and widespread” discussion on West Bengal and Kerala affairs.

In fact, a separate four-page resolution was passed by the ECC on the two states on the steps needed to be taken for “re-forging” links with people and thwarting the attempts of “reactionary forces” to wrest power from the Left.

The ECC meeting, many presumed, would see CPM general secretary Prakash Karat in the dock for leading the party on the path of decline.

But that did not happen and Mr Karat had the last laugh. He successfully pushed through his agenda and the party rallied behind him, with the dissenting voices falling silent, CPM sources said.

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee too had a happy outing as he too reportedly did not face much of the (f)ire over the sorry state of affairs in his home state, the sources added.

Mr Buddhadeb skipped both the inaugural and concluding ceremonies of the ECC meeting though he remained in the city for four-days for the closed-door sessions.
The party identified its “shortcomings” in West Bengal which are related to politics, organisation and (state) government.

“Re-forging links with people” by countering the “vilification campaign” of the “reactionary forces” led by “prime enemy” the Trinamool Congress was the panacea that the ECC recommended for the West Bengal unit.

That the CPM is certainly worried about the prospects of losing power after three-and-a-half decades has been reflected in the statements of both Prakash Karat and his politburo colleague Sitaram Yechury, who could not emphatically express confidence over their winning prospects.

“Losing elections is not unnatural. We never look at electoral gains,” Mr Karat maintained while Mr Yechury did not want to “presume” the outcome of West Bengal polls in 2011.

As usual, the 24-page political resolution, adopted by the ECC, was full of rhetoric. Opposing the “neo-liberal economic policies”, fighting the “communal forces”,
combating the Maoists who it feels have “degenerated into anarchic violence”, breaking the “strategic alliance” between India and the US and “stepping up the struggles” for the cause of the common people are the salient features of the political resolution.

Of course, numerous other issues like the international political situation, global economic crisis, climate change, electoral reforms, Centre-state relations, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the demand for Telangana and other separate states, “nexus” of big businesses and politics, the prejudicial role being played by the “corporate media”, the “attitude” of regional parties and Left unity also found mention in the political resolution.

The ECC listed 11 “tasks” for the party to regain lost ground with “struggles” on all issues as the central theme. “We discussed the West Bengal and Kerala issues in great detail for two days.

The UPA government's policies and our course of action were also elaborately discussed but most other issues only found general reference,” a senior member of the Central Committee pointed out.

By and large, the CPM feels, the ECC meeting was a success. Incidentally, it was for the first time in the party’s history that such a meeting had been called as the CPM’s national Congress, slated for March 2011, could not be held because of the impending elections in West Bengal and Kerala.