Back at helm, Prakash Karat chosen CPM interim coordinator till April poll

Former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has been named coordinator of the party’s politburo and the central committee as an interim arrangement in the wake of the death of incumbent general secretary Sitaram Yechury earlier this month.

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The decision was taken at a meeting of the CPM’s central committee, which met on Friday and Saturday. A full-time general secretary of the CPM would be elected at the “24th Congress” of the party, scheduled to be held in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, next April. The CPM congress is held every three years to elect the central committee and to decide the party line.

The name of MA Baby, politburo member and former Kerala Education Minister, is said to be in active consideration for the general secretary’s post. CPM’s West Bengal secretary Md Salim is also in the race. However, those familiar with the working of the CPM say the next general secretary would be from Kerala as the party’s organisational strength is the strongest in the southern state. In 2021, the CPM had set 75-year age limit for remaining a member of the central committee.

This makes Karat ineligible for the general secretary’s post for a fresh term. Brinda Karat, Suhasini Ali, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Tamil Nadu leader G Ramkrishnan, former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and West Bengal leader Suryakanta Misra, too, will have to be dropped from the central committee and cannot be considered for the general secretary’s post, if the CPM sticks to the 75-year age cap.

Prakash Karat remained the general secretary from 2005 to 2015. The period saw the expulsion of former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee from the party, withdrawal of support to the UPA-2 government over the nuclear deal and electoral defeat of the CPM-led Left Front government in West Bengal after over three decades in power. The immediate job Karat has in hand is the Assembly elections in four states. While polling for the elections in Haryana and the last phase of Jammu and Kashmir are going to be held within a week, those in Jharkhand and Maharashtra are slated to be held later this year. With the CPM being a member of the opposition INDIA bloc, Karat’s ability to work as a team member will be tested in these elections.