Senior leaders of the CPI(M), as well as the party’s Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, have virtually denied that their fire-eating octogenarian party colleague and former state chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan has put the CPI(M) on tenterhooks. Specifically, they disavow that Mr Achuthanandan has asked the central leadership to urgently convene the state as well as the central committee to discuss the developments in the party in Kerala, a crucial state for the CPI(M) in these difficult times for the party. But the Leader of the Opposition in the state has said enough even outside of the purported letter to set the cat among the pigeons.
Indeed, Mr Achuthanandan is reported to have observed that there is no one in the CPI(M)’s national leadership who has the capacity to lead the party at the present juncture. While the context is different, the import of the statement appears little different from the stinging rebuke that BJP leader and former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa recently delivered to his own party’s top brass. The Karnataka saffron strongman made no secret of his disdain for the party’s national leaders as he noted the other day that after Atal Behari Vajpayee ceased to be active, there was no one left who could effectively lead the BJP. For his part Mr Achuthanandan has all but put his party leaders on notice that he would resign his position as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly unless the party in the state was revamped to his satisfaction. Such a demand stems from his long-running battle with Mr Vijayan, whom he has accused in the past of brazen corruption, knowing full well that the state party secretary enjoys the unstinting support of CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat.
This either reflects Mr Achuthanandan’s frustration at not getting his way, or his assessment of the weakness of his rival, Mr Vijayan, that has made Kerala’s most popular CPI(M) leader choose as the battleground the murder on May 4 of T.P. Chandrasekharan, a leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, started by CPI(M) breakaways, allegedly by CPI(M) members who owe allegiance to Mr Vijayan.
Mr Achuthanandan has gone to the extent of comparing the latter to S.A. Dange, under whose leadership the undivided Communist Party of India split in 1964, to give birth to the CPI(M). Ideologically and politically, the comparison is a travesty. But does it tell us that Mr Achuthanandan — not unlike Mr Yeddyurappa in the Karnataka BJP — may be toying with the idea of parting company with his party? We are unlikely to know until he makes his next move. But the situation is hardly one that can offer the CPI(M) a lot of comfort.