NEW DELHI: With the view that the “threat” due to BJP has intensified since 2019, a broad consensus appears to have emerged at the end of the three-day meeting of the CPM central committee that it will be politically expedient to continue with the existing political line with regard to Congress, as agreed in the Hyderabad party congress in 2018.
In 2018, the CPM party congress had decided that though Congress, like BJP, represented the ‘big bourgeoisie’ and that there could be no tactical line that treated it as an ally or partner in a united front, the BJP and Congress cannot be seen as “equal dangers”.
An outline of the party’s draft political resolution was discussed during the meeting. Sources said what stood out during the deliberations, a crucial precursor to the next party congress in Kannur in April 2022, was the “mixed bag” of reactions from Kerala leaders, many of whom asserted that a “pragmatic line” to tackling Congress -allying in West Bengal and opposing in Kerala – actually helped CPM reinforce its sincerity and commitment in fighting the BJP and the right wing.
A section of Kerala leaders also pointed out that this approach bumped up minority support for CPM in Kerala and gave the LDF a historic second term.
While a section of leaders from Kerala and other states insisted Congress cannot be the sole “anti-BJP fulcrum”, others argued that talk of electoral alliances just yet was premature.