Karat says Yechury didn't offer to quit even as CPI(M) chief claims he did

Yechury wants to keep door open for electoral understanding with Congress but Karat's draft has ruled out any truck with the Congress, but supports alliances with regional parties

The factional fight within the Communist Party of India (Marxist) soured further on Tuesday and underlined how the feud was increasingly less about the dispute over party’s electoral line in the forthcoming elections, and shaped more by the personal rivalry of senior leader Prakash Karat and current party chief Sitaram Yechury.

In an interview to a news website on Tuesday, Karat denied that Yechury had offered to resign as the party chief after the central committee of the party had rejected the draft presented by him at its meeting in Kolkata over the weekend. Karat, the former party chief, also said that it was “not a Karat versus Yechury issue”.

Yechury, however, told Business Standard that he did offer to resign, both at the meeting of the party’s politburo as well as the central committee. “It is a fact (that I had offered to resign). I said it very clearly,” Yechury said.

Yechury said he was dissuaded from quitting as party chief. “Majority of the politburo and central committee members argued that I should not resign as it would send a very bad message on the eve of the assembly elections in Tripura and in the run-up to the party congress,” he said. The CPI (M)’s party conclave, termed ‘congress’, takes place once in three years. The party conclave is scheduled for April in Hyderabad.

At the heart of the dispute is the 'political line' the party should pursue for the next three years. Both Karat and Yechury had presented their respective drafts of this political line. Yechury's draft was defeated by 31 to 55 votes.

The difference in Yechury’s and Karat’s drafts is one of nuance. Yechury wants to keep the door open for electoral understanding with all secular parties, including the Congress and regional parties. Karat’s draft has ruled out any truck with the Congress but supports alliances with regional parties.

Karat's draft, which the central committee approved, will now be sent to state units of the party, and then taken up for discussion and final approval at the party conclave in April. Any party member can move amendments to the draft at the party conclave, and Yechury has indicated that he would go down fighting for what he believes in.

Yechury’s three-year term as the party chief also comes to an end in April, and there is the likelihood that the Karat camp will mount a challenge. The party is currently vertically divided between Yechury and Karat. The party's Bengal unit supports Yechury and Kerala unit supports Karat. These two are the most powerful units of the party and represent half the membership of the party congress. Other state units are also divided between the two.

Karat has said that the Congress and BJP were both ruling class parties and should be fought electorally, but also that the BJP  was the bigger enemy. “The Congress is not our target of attack,” Karat told The Print. He said the CPI (M) will cooperate with the Congress on issues in Parliament and outside, but not electorally.

However, Karat also approves of the CPI (M) aligning with the Congress in states like Tamil Nadu. There, the CPI (M) has an electoral alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which in turn has an alliance with the Congress.

In 2004 Lok Sabha, the CPI (M) had a seat adjustment with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, but the two parties fought each other in West Bengal and Kerala.