VS carves a niche in a cadre-based party

Is the CPI(M), known for its cadre-based, democratic organisational structure deviating from its ideology, principles and style of working? The words of party general secretary Prakash Karat after the polit bureau meeting on Monday, when he admitted that the 'VS factor' had saved the party in Kerala, seem to indicate this.

Before the elections and throughout the campaign, both the party polit bureau and the party's state leadership were reluctant to admit VS's importance and had even clarified that the party never depended on images of leaders throughout its 90 years of history.

The party openly said that there was no practise in the CPI(M) to project one leader to any post and that the leader would be selected after the polls. This was also the answer given by leaders like Karat and S Ramachandran Pillai to qureries on who would lead the front after the elections.

Now, Karat has acknowledged the crucial role VS played in the party securing a comfortable position in the Kerala Assembly elections, though their alliance (LDF) lost to UDF by a slender margin. He even said there was nothing wrong in exhibiting posters of VS in Kerala, and that even in West Bengal, Jyoti Basu's picutres were widely used in election campaigns.

The most interesting about turn is the selection of VS Achuthanandan for the post of opposition leader in Kerala by the polit bureau, deviating from the normal practice of leaving the decision to the state unit.

A major chunk of the party workers and the public now feel that without VS leading the campaign, LDF's position would have been pathetic as in West Bengal. This factor is now admitted by the general secretary openly, swallowing his earlier stance.

The next big question is that whether VS will be in the party polit bureau. This is the million dollar question for the party's rank and file now, since he was dropped from the PB for his repeated disregard towards party disipline.

The party leader's acknowledgement of VS's role in the elections is seen as a prelude to his re-entry into the polit bureau, though there is stiff resistance from the official faction of the party in Kerala.