CPI-M denies divide, worried over growth

CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat Wednesday denied a divide within the leadership but admitted the party was concerned over its poor growth in the country.

Speaking after a meeting of the central committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Karat also said that the party will soon embrace "a new political-tactical line" after internal discussions.

"The CPI-M will adopt a new political-tactical line. We will come out with a resolution soon," he said.

"We will adopt it in the next central committee meeting after we get suggestions and amendments (from members). We will undertake an in-depth review and adopt the new political line."

A CPI-M statement said the draft review report sought to "identify any weaknesses or shortcomings which need to be corrected to ensure the growth of the independent strength of the party".

Asked about the reported differences within the CPI-M, Karat said: "Some of the stories in the media are highly misleading."

But he made an indirect admission of the divide by saying that members of the politburo were free to express any opinion.

Karat added that the CPI-M was worried over its failure to expand its influence in the country.

The party's central committee debated from Sunday the impact of the political-tactical line adopted at the CPI-M's 1978 Congress in Jalandhar in Punjab.

The CPI-M then decided to take a lead in forging a broad anti-Congress alliance of secular and democratic parties which later also targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Party insiders admit they have failed in the project. At the same time, the CPI-M, India's largest Communist group, has failed to grow outside of its known bastions: Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura.

Party leader Sitaram Yechury moved an "alternative document" at the CPI-M leadership meet.

Yechury's document, informed sources say, rejects the conclusions made in the draft report presented by Karat.

For years, Karat and Yechury -- both from Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University -- were considered the rising stars of the CPI-M and the best bet for the party's growth in changing times.

However, that has not happened.

From a time when the CPI-M headed governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura and was also a deciding factor in national politics, the party now looks a pale shadow of its original self.

Now in power only in Tripura, the CPI-M has only nine members in the current Lok Sabha.

The next Central Committee meeting will take place in January.

The CPI-M was formed in 1964 following a split in the Communist Party of India. The CPI-M itself suffered a major split in 1969 when a more radical Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist was born.