Hyderabad: When Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was voted out as the last CPM Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2011, the CPM in Bengal, a party that ruled the state for more than 33 years in a row, was faced with a bleak political future in Bengal.
The Mamta wave had uprooted them, not just as a political rival but as a terminator who chopped the anchor root of the cadre party in Bengal. The party was at a loss of way as it had no popular second rung leadership to defend against the Mamta juggernaut. 10 years down the line, the CPM in Bengal has become a spent force with no young leadership to give it a new lease of life.
Meanwhile in the Southern tip of India, in Kerala, the only state where CPM is still in power, CPM seemed to have learned a lesson or two from their Bengal counterparts.
When the CPM state secretariat gave out the list of their Minister for the Pinarayi 2.0 cabinet on Tuesday, the whole discussion is on the decision to keep KK Shailaja, the famed Health Minister who have won several international accolades for her efficient handling of two health emergencies, Nippah and Covid 19, out of the cabinet.
The low pressure over speculations on the possible cabinet has developed into a full-blown cyclone, especially on social media with messages supporting Shailaja pouring in.
ALSO READ: BJP's manifesto is a document of betrayal: CPM
It was too difficult for the CPM to keep Shailaja away, especially when she was only second to the Chief Minister in popularity and was spearheading the campaign of LDF that sought a consecutive second term.
As many celebrities who wrote in favor of KK Shailaja suggested, Shailaja could also claim a lion's share of the credit that helped LDF win for the second consecutive term.
She was also the most popular face in Western Media and an active participant in most of the international health summits. Her simple, down-to-earth demeanor and efficient handling of crisis situations made her immensely popular both among the common class and among the educated elite.
But when CPM decided to keep all the elected Ministers out of the cabinet, there was no chance of giving Shailaja an exemption.
All except for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the cabinet are first-time Ministers. The cabinet has an effective mix of party seniors plus young blood, keeping all the three-four Ministers who had contested and won in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
The message CPM wants to convey is loud and clear that it does not want Bengal to repeat in Kerala. When the people of Kerala rallied behind the welfare-development policies of the Left Democratic Front Government and gave them a historic consecutive mandate, it was easier for the party to fall into the trap of keeping the popular faces in the ministry.
Also read: Tripura CM pays state honour to soldier killed in militant attack
However, CPM chose to play the politics of survival than giving in to the popular demands when it decided to keep popular as well as efficient Ministers like Thomas Issac and G Sudhakaran out of the election fray. The party had decided to keep out all who had won two consecutive terms and brought in their trusted comrades who have been working in the party's organizational setup.
The candidature itself had stirred a hornet's nest. Even the party sympathisers openly questioned the move to keep out popular Ministers. But the decision was taken and the selection of Ministers to the cabinet seems to be just a continuation of that decision.
“Individuals do not matter. It is the party that matters,” CPM state secretary A Vijayaraghavan had recently replied to a question about denying tickets to senior party leaders. The exclusion of Shailaja along with her other three cabinet colleagues, M M Mani, Kadakampally Surendran, and TP Ramakrishnan was a strong message in the same line.
“Exclusion of Shailaja was a unanimous decision by the state secretariat. The exemption could not have been given to only one person,” P Rajeev, former Rajya Sabha MP and the incumbent Minister in the Pinarayi Cabinet said.
KK Shailaja also rallied behind the party's decision. “I have no disappointment. Whatever I had achieved was not my individual achievements but a collective one of the government. All in the cabinet had performed well and I am happy I could also do well,” she told media persons after the secretariat announced the list of the Ministers.
Also read: NIT Agartala receives patent for hybrid tricycle
CPM sowed the seeds of change with the local body elections this year by introducing young faces. They even made Arya Rajendran, a 21-year-old councilor from Trivandrum as the youngest Mayor in Kerala's history.
The message it wanted to convey was that without nurturing the young leaders to take over the party's mantle in the coming years, CPM in Kerala too would face the fate of Bengal CPM.
V S Achuthanandan, the only surviving founding leader of CPM, is now leading a retired life due to age-related complications. Pinarayi Vijayan has already made it clear that he will not be contesting the elections in the coming elections and there are hardly any other leaders who can take the party forward in the absence of these two.
So it has to bring up a fresh line of leadership that has both the popularity and leadership qualities if it wants to continue its successful political journey in Kerala. KK Shailaja, the leader, who the party now elected as the Chief Whip in the Assembly could probably be the Chief Ministerial candidate when LDF faces the elections in 2026 and could probably become the first woman Chief Minister of Kerala.
