These are troubled days for the Left. A disastrous showing in the Lok Sabha elections, an even worse performance in recent civic elections in West Bengal, and in Kerala, some of the worst infighting in a long time. No simple solution to the fighting seems to be on the cards.
Two days of brainstorming by the politburo has not put an end the infighting in CPM's Kerala unit. A final decision has been put off till the next week, when the party's highest executive body, the Central Committee, will decide the fate of Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and his rival Pinarayi Vijayan.
The party recently admitted that the infighting cost the Left dearly in the Lok Sabha polls.
"The politburo of the CPM decided to convene a meeting of the Central Committee on July 11 and 12, 2009 to consider the proposals of the politburo regarding the party affairs in Kerala," said politburo member Sitaram Yechury.
However, there's no word on what these proposals are. Sources say the politburo could not arrive at a consensus on the reported demand made by Vijayan's loyalists to remove Achuthanandan as CM.
In fact, Kerala CM's loyalists believe Pinarayi Vijayan should step down as the party secretary in Kerala till the courts clears him of the recent corruption charges.
CPM leaders were just not willing to share what steps the party could possibly take to resolve the Kerala crisis but sources told NDTV that the emphasis would be to unify the various factions ahead of the assembly polls in Kerala in 2011.
