CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and former party general secretary Prakash Karat (Right).
In an unprecedented development in the CPM’s recent history, the party’s top decision making body – the Central Committee – on Sunday rejected the draft of the political resolution presented by General Secretary Sitaram Yechury. His draft was rejected 55-31 in a vote at the end of the three-day meeting in Kolkata.
With Yechury’s draft rejected, the alternative document presented in the central committee by his predecessor Prakash Karat and S Ramachandran Pillai would now go to the party’s once-in-three-year national conclave scheduled to be held in Hyderabad this April.
The development will plunge the party into further crisis. The tussle between Yechury and Karat is over what should be the party’s approach towards the Congress in the next Lok Sabha election. Both Yechury and Karat agree that the primary objective of the party is to defeat the BJP and oust it from power from at the Centre but differ on the tactics to achieve that goal.
The Yechury draft said the party should work to achieve its primary objective of defeating the BJP and ousting it from power “without entering into an electoral alliance or front” with ruling class parties. His draft did not name the Congress and avoids the word “understanding.”
The Karat draft, on the other hand, says the party should work to achieve the same goal “without entering into any understanding or alliance with the Congress party.”
It goes on to say that in states where there are dominant regional parties, the party can have an understanding with them even though they are in alliance with the Congress. The specific example could be Tamil Nadu, where the CPM wants to have an alliance with the DMK which will have an alliance with the Congress.
The Karat draft also says that in states where the Congress and the BJP is locked in a direct fight, the CPM can contest a few seats and give a call and campaign for the defeat of the BJP in other seats.