Change of guard in CPI(M): Generational shift or lost opportunity?

With a new General Secretary and younger faces in the Polit Bureau, the CPI(M) has initiated change in its leadership ranks. Will it be enough to make a mark in heartland India?

The recently concluded Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Madurai saw a generational shift and change of guard. While prominent veterans like the Karats and Manik Sarkar made way for younger leaders in the Polit Bureau, the change is an indication of a new line of leadership being prepared for the near future. However, the elevation of M.A. Baby as the new General Secretary, to fill up the vacuum left by Sitaram Yechury, does not evoke much confidence of a national revival for the party, especially in the Hindi belt and the heft needed to take on Hinduvta politics. Apparent ideological digressions, inability to attract the younger generation and the diminishing influence on the evolving working class are issues that the new leadership confronts.

Text page image courtesy: Erfanebrahimsait

It might have been an emotional moment for Prakash Karat and Brinda Karat, who moved out of the Polit Bureau (PB) of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), at its 24th party congress, which concluded in Madurai on 6 April 2025. The couple, along with the late Sitaram Yechury, were the young Turks in the late 1970s and 1980s, who were identified as the future leaders of the party and destined to steer the expectant socialist revolution in the country.

The prophecies were true in terms of the leadership. Both Karat and Yechury became members of the CPI(M) Central Committee (CC) and, subsequently, the Polit Bureau, at pretty young ages: Prakash Karat came into the CC in 1985 at the age of 37 and 7 years later, to the Polit Bureau in 1992; Yechury, though five years younger to Karat, was elected to the CC in 1984, a year before Karat, at the ripe age of 32, and joined the Polit Bureau along with Karat in 1992, at 40.

Prakash Karat’s wife, Brinda, though came to the highest executive of the party only at the age of 58; she was then the first woman ever to join the Polit Bureau in 2005. This only formed one of the many such contradictions for a ‘progressive’ party, which has also not seen a Dalit in its highest decision-making body.

More significant is the fact that while both Karat and Yechury rose to the top of the party – as its General Secretary for multiple tenures – the party’s national standing and expectant communist revolution fell to its nadir under their leaderships. Neither were successful in reversing the slide of the party on the national stage, let alone expanding it organizationally or electorally.

Despite being youth icons of their time, neither could substantially attract youth to party beyond the catchment areas in the universities, that too mostly restricted in stronghold states. Generation Z, innately depoliticized, had largely been at arms’ length with communism, thanks also to the hyper-nationalism that has swept the country in the past decade.

While the working class had traditionally mobilized around the Left trade unions, the last few decades saw the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), now supplanting the CPI(M)-affiliated Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) as the country’s largest union force.

The communist parties or their union affiliates have long ceased to mobilise the unorganized either in the metros or the Gangetic belt where they are subjected to established systems of exploitation and have existed as voiceless entities since time immemorial.

Much of the blame for the irreversible slide of the CPI(M) on the national scene is placed on the leadership of Prakash Karat. As General Secretary, Karat’s obstinacy had led to the CPI(M) losing its grandstanding and leverage during the first tenure of the United Progressive Government (UPA), led by Manmohan Singh during the 2004-09 period.

The Party’s decision to withdraw support to the UPA government over the nuclear deal was widely seen as an embodiment of its inability to comprehend what is in the ‘national interest’ of the country. Loaded by ideological bias – since the nuclear deal that facilitated India’s integration with the global non-proliferation regime was spearheaded by the US – the Party failed to gauge the strategic gains India stood to accrue from the deal and raised roadblocks that led to the beginning of the CPI(M)’s fall in national politics.

From the record high of 43 seats attained in the 2004 elections to the 14th Lok Sabha, the Party’s tally dramatically fell to 16 seats in 2009, in an election which saw Manmohan Singh being voted back to power without the support of many of his first-term allies like the Left parties.

The CPI(M)’s slide in national politics has since been irreversible: 9 in 2014, 3 in 2019 and 4 in 2024, with these far and few victories, largely attributed to the fronts it was part of in a few states. The Party was voted out of power in 2011 after 34 years of continuous rule. In 2018, it lost power in Tripura after 20 years in power.

The CPI(M) is now in power only in Kerala, where, for the first time, it was re-elected in 2021. The state party leadership now keeps high hopes of an unprecedented third return in 2026, even as the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has made major strides in the state, with its candidates leading in over 11 assembly seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

It is in this political backdrop that the central leadership of the largest mainstream Indian communist party has seen a change of guard, which, incidentally, was not a routine passing of the baton, but a generational shift in itself.

Change of guard in Madurai

At the 23rd Party Congress of 2022 in Kannur, the Party has resolved to retire its senior leaders who have passed the age of 75 years from the Polit Bureau and Central Committee. Accordingly, the 24th Party Congress in Madurai was destined to propel the generational shift though speculation has been rife throughout whether powerful leaders like Karat, Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar could see an exit from the Polit Bureau.

Equally speculative were the potential successors to Yechury as General Secretary of the party.

While some felt that Karat might be asked to continue in the light of a suitable successor to Yechury, who had a national standing, it was also thought that Brinda Karat would be the eventual choice, as the first woman General Secretary, and could be given an exemption from the 75 years age restriction in order to portray a strong woman-centric political message to the nation.

All other Polit Bureau members had already passed the age bar or did not have the kind of national standing and political appeal that could have qualified them to lead India’s largest mainstream communist party.

It is in this context that the eventual choice of M.A. Baby as the General Secretary at the Madurai party Congress might have come as a surprise to many. Not to say that Baby was not in the reckoning. However, few would have expected Baby – born as a Christian and with hardly any influence in the Hindi belt – to be anointed as the chosen one.

At a time when the CPI(M) had the twin challenges of having to make a decisive presence in the Hindi heartland and also take on the Hindutva forces, having once led the ‘secular’ brigade,’ Baby hardly seemed the ideal choice for the occasion.

Will Baby be able to revive the party on a national scale? Will he be able to make any stir in the politics of Hindi heartland? Will Baby, who does not seem to have mass appeal even in his home state of Kerala, be able to provide new ideological direction and organizational rejuvenation to a movement that has hit the nadir?

These are questions that might be echoing among the cadre as they prepare to align with the new leadership.

Baby would likely be in a transitionary role wherein he could steer the party’s generational transformation and herald the advent of a new generation of leaders who might increasingly populate the higher leadership structures in the years to come. If anything, the new and younger faces in the Polit Bureau as well as the CC suggest the impending transition to a new generation of leadership.

While most new inclusions including U Vasuki, Marian Dhawale, K Ramakrishnan, Amraram, Jitendra Chaudhury and Srideep Bhattacharya are in their late 60s or early 70s, it is the arrival of younger faces – Vijoo Krishnan and Arun Kumar – in the Polit Bureau that has signalled the frontline communist party’s intent to embrace change after decades of sticking to veterans at the helm.

Moreover, the change also indicates the early identification of future leadership, as done in the mid-1980s with the dramatic elevation of Yechury and Karat, then 37 and 40 years respectively, to the CC and subsequently to the PB. It is now a foregone conclusion that the PB membership is destined to groom both Vijoo Krishnan and Arun Kumar, in their 50s, as leaders who could lead the party at some stage in the coming future.

With a notable background in organizing farmers around the country, as General Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), Krishnan is already known as a formidable organiser with connections at the grassroots level, across the country, whereas Kumar, with strong familial bonds in the party, is said to be well rooted in the ideological segment.

A lost opportunity?

The General Secretaryship being swung in favour of Baby was largely attributed to not just the support of the Kerala unit of the party but also illustrating how the state unit, being the only one in power, has absolute control over the party. Though it was reported that the Kerala unit, led by Pinarayi Vijayan, was not initially keen on Baby’s assumption of charge, the opposition to Baby from the West Bengal unit seemingly prompted him to support his state colleague.

The Bengal unit was reportedly pushing for Ashok Dhawale, the veteran communist from Maharashtra, to be Yechury’s successor. Dhawale, for his part, would have been a more considerate choice who could have gained traction in the Hindi belt though his ability to attract youth towards the party would still have been in doubt.

Baby’s prowess on this front might not be inspiring either.

Dhawale’s wife Mariam, who now joins her better half in the PB, thus replacing the Karat couple, could also have been a tactful choice which could have found muster among women besides providing stimulus across central India, particularly in its farm belts. However, being a new face, Mariam did not seem to have found favour in a race where her husband was in contention.

However, the actual lapse in judgement on the General Secretary selection seems to be in overlooking the political significance of Amra Ram, whose aura in Rajasthan should have been an eye-opener for the CPI(M). From farmers’ causes to working class issues, Amra Ram has shown what is possible in the Hindi belt of heartland India.

Rising from a school teacher to a sarpanch, and a three-time MLA to eventually winning the Sikar parliament seat in 2024, Amra Ram is a glimmer of hope for the CPI(M) in the feudal landscape of the Hindi heartland where everything from rural poverty, farmers strife, unemployment necessitates political intervention and mass movements.

The leadership of CPI(M) or Left parties have had ignored this political potential or were lethargic in mobilizing cadre and peoples’ movements to engage and confront these issues. This, in fact, made the Polit Bureau look like an armchair body with veteran communists reflecting upon national and global issues with a sense of disassociation, resignation and nonchalance.

It is in this space that mass leaders like Amra Ram come up with a promise for the party. No wonder, the national press described Amra Ram as the only member from ‘North India’ in the Polit Bureau, as much as he was for the party in the Lok Sabha. This exceptionalism being a sorry state of affairs for India’s largest communist party, the need of the hour was to pitchfork a face from the heartland to lead the party in this phase of transition and rejuvenation.

Instead, the CPI(M) relied on a time-tested formula on preferred a senior Polit Bureau member based on the support of the powerful faction. As mentioned earlier, it was the support of the Kerala unit that swung the decision in Baby's favour. However, even two weeks later, we are yet to see Baby elucidating his vision for the party or its revival. It may not come as a surprise that his elevation did not seem to have excited the cadre even in his home state, let alone at the national level.

The Kerala factor

Backing a seemingly pliable Baby could have served the cause of Pinarayi Vijayan, the Kerala Chief Minister and senior most PB member in the current scheme of things. While Karat was known to have heavily relied on Vijayan for gaining an upper hand in the higher executive – be it CC or PB – the latter’s leverage was seen to have diminished under Yechury, who was known to be close to Vijayan’s bete noire, the now-retired V.S. Achuthanandan.

Even in that diminished setting, the clout and leverage of the Kerala unit continue to remain supreme in the CPI(M)’s pecking order, feeding the financial pipelines for the party’s functioning and wherewithal. Accordingly, despite the resistance put up by the Bengal unit, it was a foregone conclusion that eventually, it would be the Kerala unit’s choice – to be specific, Pinarayi Vijayan’s, who could emerge as the General Secretary in Madurai.

No wonder then that the new General Secretary did not mince words when asked by the press corps at the end of the party Congress who will lead the party in Kerala’s assembly elections next year. While asserting that Vijayan will lead the campaign in 2026, he, though, was not committal on who will be the Chief Minister if the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) is voted back to power, a third time, in the southern state.

No such ambiguity, however, persists in the Kerala unit where Vijayan remains the supremo and has the final word. But what the Madurai party Congress underlined was Vijayan’s unassailable control over the party even at the national level. This is best embodied by the decision at the party Congress to endow the sole exemption on the age bar only to Pinarayi Vijayan, which not only made him the seniormost PB member but also the de facto authority at the helm of the party today.

Evidently, Vijayan had to stay in the PB as the Kerala unit, in its recent State Conference had resolved to fight the 2026 assembly election under Vijayan’s leadership.

A sure-shot record third term, unprecedented in Kerala’s history, is what the CPI(M) intends to achieve in 2026, notwithstanding the intense anti-incumbency that is evident in the state’s political environment, well reflected through the Left washout in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

However, many in the party see this only as a déjà vu moment, as in 2019. Despite the LDF being restricted to one seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the Sabarimala issue had considerably dented the LDF’s prospects, the party sprung back to power with Vijayan deftly managing multiple crises including the COVID pandemic of 2020-21, besides ensuring that his populist policies – mainly the Onam kit distribution – restored mass support for his leadership in the 2021 assembly poll.

The Left cadre expects a rerun of the 2021 scenario in 2026 as well!

Many observers in Kerala, however, see this only as wishful thinking as the political conditions of 2021 are no longer prevalent in the state. Furthermore, the Congress, the primary opposition party in Kerala, seems stronger than in 2021 with factional feuds comparatively lesser from earlier years though many chief ministerial aspirants could still emerge as spoilers for a party which is confident of a dramatic return to power after two consecutive terms in the opposition.

Additionally, the corruption cases plaguing the Chief Minister’s family as well as institutions associated with the CPI(M) are supposed to have transformed the image of the party from being a working-class movement to a pro-capital political enterprise, allegedly camouflaged by the 'development' paradigm.

The elephant in the room, however, is the rising strength of the BJP in Kerala. From an also-ran political force for many decades, the BJP has gained public support and organizational strength in Kerala during the Modi years. In the 2024 elections, the BJP led in at least 11 assembly seats and half a dozen of its candidates came close to or over 3 lakh seats in respective constituencies, which implies at least a runner-up position vis-à-vis the assembly calculations.

There have been recurring allegations of a secret channel of cooperation between CPI(M) and BJP in Kerala, ostensibly to keep the Congress out of power from the state. For their part, CPI(M) leaders have pointed to the targeting of Vijayan’s family by the central investigative agencies to dismiss such allegations.

However, such insinuations continue to gain pace in recent times, particularly after a draft political resolution prepared for the Kerala state conference of the party reportedly abandoned the description of the Modi Government as ‘fascist’ and, instead, having only ‘neo-fascist’ traits. While Congress leaders saw it as a watering down of the CPI(M)’s ideological aversion to the BJP, the statements by Prakash Karat and state Secretary of CPI(M), M.V. Govindan added fuel to these claims.

Beyond these allegations and counters, and speculation in some quarters that the BJP and CPM may have a tacit understanding in order to ensure the Congress is kept out of power in the state, it is also now increasingly felt that the anti-incumbency against the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala might benefit the BJP more than the Congress.

For, it is either Pinarayi or Modi, for many Keralities!