The Left Front’s internal review is very thorough, following a really disappointing election result. Top leaders are suggesting they’ll make significant changes, and more and more people are saying Pinarayi Vijayan could be Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly. A lot is at stake; people at the grassroots are angry and the Front’s good name is being questioned.
Leadership under pressure as CPI(M) launches post-poll audit
A meeting of the State secretariat, unusually open and honest, focused on who is responsible for what happened. People who were there say criticism was aimed at M.V. Govindan (the State secretary) and leaders at all levels. The meeting was direct and didn’t hold back, which is different from how they’ve been in the past.
The ability to openly say what you think gave some people energy. Others, at the district level, were not as optimistic, saying that the review committees were full of people who are only focused on their own careers. As one senior leader put it, the people who are supposed to be solving the problems seem to be ignoring their own part in creating them.
Grassroots candour and scepticism
Party groups will go all the way down to the branch level to hear from the lowest levels of the party. Workers who are unhappy have already called for immediate changes to the organization, using social media and posters. But the leaders say they will only make decisions after they have completely examined themselves.
A statewide review with deadlines
M.A. Baby, the CPI(M) general secretary, said the discussion throughout the organization will be in-depth and will not be stopped. He said people will be allowed to say what they disagree with and promised to change direction based on the facts and what is discussed.
He explained that over the next month and a half, the whole organization will discuss this issue at all different levels. He said people will be able to speak freely in the meetings and leaders will listen patiently. After the discussions, they will work out why they did so badly in the election and make the necessary changes.
The LDF (Left Democratic Front) has also scheduled its own detailed assessment, and it has told the parties within the LDF to finish their own reviews and give their findings to a discussion across the entire state. It also intends to hear from a much broader range of the public, not just party members.
Key steps now scheduled are as follows:
– State secretariat reconvenes on May 12
– State committee meets on May 13 and 14
– LDF units complete reviews before June 15
– Front-wide meeting by end of June
Who leads the Opposition next?
Who will be the top person in the Assembly hasn’t been decided yet. Baby said they will talk about it at the right time. However, several leaders have said privately that Pinarayi Vijayan is the best person for the job now.
A leading figure from another party in the LDF said that, given the LDF’s small number of representatives in the Assembly and the fact that the BJP has three members, only Mr. Vijayan is suitable. Binoy Viswam, the CPI state secretary, added that it is up to the CPI(M) to decide and his party will not interfere.
Signals from the top
Vijayan, after leading an LDF meeting, described the loss as a beginning, not an end. He said the result is “a new start for continuing to do political work” and said he still believes in the development and welfare programs of the last ten years.
He said they will carefully consider all worries and complaints. The LDF, he stated, will listen to everyone and make changes in their methods and actions wherever they find problems.
T.P. Ramakrishnan, the LDF convener, warned against jumping to conclusions. He said the Front hadn’t decided that people being dissatisfied with the current government was the main reason for the loss, or that minority groups had voted against them as a block, although he admitted opponents had tried to cause this to happen.
Why this review cannot fail
This examination of what went wrong comes after an earlier warning. After the 2024 Lok Sabha (national parliamentary) election, where the LDF won only one of the 20 seats in Kerala, the CPI(M) Central Committee said that the party organizations hadn’t understood what the public were thinking. They said the party’s connection with ordinary people was getting weaker.
This echoed what the party said after the 2019 Lok Sabha results. Then, they also found they had misunderstood the voters, and had lost many seats by over 100,000 votes. The fact that this large difference in votes continues to happen means another wrong judgement of the situation would be even more damaging.
Right now, the important thing is for the organization to be truthful with itself. Leaders say they will come to conclusions only after hearing things they don’t want to hear. It will be up to the voters to decide if the Left can turn looking inward into actual improvements, and if having Pinarayi Vijayan as the leader of the Opposition will calm down their supporters who are worried.
