CPI(M) Kerala meet takes up organisational correction after poll setback

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has begun an extended three-day state committee meeting in Kozhikode, with corrective measures to address organisational weaknesses dominating the agenda following the party's setback in the Kerala Assembly elections.

A draft report prepared by the state committee on the problems facing the party is being opened up for debate. Select participants drawn from across districts, along with representatives of the party's class and mass organisations, are taking part in the discussion.

On the opening day, participants including district secretariat members held district-based group discussions in the afternoon. An open debate on the draft report began at 7 p.m. and ran for an hour, and is set to resume on Monday morning and continue through the day.

Speaking to the media earlier, state secretary M.V. Govindan said both the central committee and the state committee had produced review reports identifying the party's shortcomings. He said the aim would be to rectify those lapses and propose ways to improve.

Acknowledging that organisational problems persist at the grassroots, Govindan said the state committee would intervene directly rather than leave district committees to resolve issues on their own. The state leadership also plans to review, every three months or at least once in six months, whether the corrective steps are being implemented properly.

Govindan described the Enforcement Directorate's attempt to implicate Leader of the Opposition and Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan in corruption cases as another means of attacking the party. He said efforts would be made to resist the advance of right-wing and communal forces in the state.

Opening the conference in the morning, party general secretary M.A. Baby said the CPI(M) should have been more alert in responding to what he called the deliberate creation of a false perception, which he said had contributed significantly to the party's recent reverses. He said this narrative should have been exposed and defeated, and that other lapses on the party's part also needed correction so that public trust could be regained.

Baby drew a parallel with 1960, when the undivided Communist Party of India increased its vote share in the elections but lost power in the state, and said a similar situation had arisen in 2026. He said the creation of false perceptions against the CPI(M) and its leaders began after the party-led front returned to power in the 2021 Assembly polls, citing as one example the allegation that the party had struck a deal with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party — a charge he said had influenced a large number of people. He called for an examination of where the party had erred in countering such campaigns.

Baby said party cadre should engage in criticism of others and of themselves, noting that many prominent leaders, including some currently at the helm, had gone through the party's rectification exercise, which he described as a time-tested method for corrective action. He did not comment on the Enforcement Directorate's action.