Veteran communist leader may return to Left Front

Speculation is rife here that veteran communist leader K.R. Gowri, the lone surviving member of the world's first democratically elected communist government, will return to the Left Front in Kerala.

The buzz began a day after Left Democratic Front convenor Vaikom Viswan met the 95-year-old leader here.

Gowri is the only surviving member of the first ever communist government led by E.M.S. Nampoothiripad in 1957. She has contested all the assembly elections since then and was a five-time minister.

She was thrown out of the Communist Party of India-Marxist in 1994, prompting her to form the Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy (JSS). Till a few months back, the JSS was an ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

After two successive defeats in the 2006 and 2011 assembly elections, and with age catching up, she wanted to return to the Left fold, while a majority of the JSS party thought otherwise and her party split, with one faction still in the UDF.

Gowri claimed that Viswan's visit was to invite her party to become an ally of the Left Front, while Viswan said the Left Front will take a decision in this regard and not him.

Sources in the CPI-M indicated that it would not be long before she returns to the Left Front.