(MENAFN- The Arabian Post) By Nitya Chakraborty

CPI general secretary D Raja who has been granted his third term at the recently concluded 25th congress of CPI in Chandigarh faces a stupendous task in rejuvenating the stagnating party organisation and steer it with dynamism and vision to play a proper role in building a Left Democratic Alternative to fight the BJP in the coming years. Raja took over the CPI leadership in 2019 after the premature retirement of S. Sudhakar Reddy from the general secretaryship due to health reasons. In the last six years, since 2019, the CPI politically and organisationally has not been able to make much breakthrough under D Raja 's leadership.

As regards the electoral scenario, the CPI's Lok Sabha seat number went down to 2 in 2024 Lok Sabha elections from the total of three in 2019 elections. Now, the assembly polls in Bihar are due in October/November this year while the other Assembly polls to Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry are due in April/May 2026. Raja as the third term general secretary will have to prove his worth by bettering the electoral results in all these assembly elections.

Raja himself admits the challenges before the Left and he has talked of giving a fresh look to the party's organisational policies to make the CPI more relevant again in the national politics and to play a prominent role through the trade unions and the peasants organizations in carrying on massive movements against the anti people economic policies of the Modi Government. The CPI general secretary admits that there has to be a long drawn battle and the left alone cannot discharge that responsibility. The Left will try to act as a catalyst in the movement but the Congress, the biggest opposition party and the other secular forces will have to play pro-active role under the INDIA Bloc to meet the challenge of the BJP through both elections as also movements on the basis of programmes.

Right now, the focus of the CPI should be on defeating the NDA led by the BJP and the JD(U) in the Bihar assembly polls. This battle has got special significance. Thanks to Rahul Gandhi, there has been a massive response by the people of Bihar to the Leader of Opposition's call for protecting voting rights and defeat all efforts by the ruling NDA to disenfranchise the poor, the dalits and the minorities. This awareness aroused by the INDIA Bloc parties in Bihar has laid a fertile ground for campaign. The CPI cadres in Bihar have consistently participated in the campaign for voting rights. D. Raja has to see that the CPI gets seats in its strongholds and emerge as a party in the next assembly with better representation.

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Bihar has given confidence to the INDIA Bloc that includes the Congress, RJD and the Left parties to spread out the anti-SIR movement to other states. After Bihar, Kerala is the state which is witnessing assembly polls but the Left parties including the CPI and the CPI(M) will be fighting the Congress led United Democratic Front as per the traditional political pattern in the state. CPI did well in the last assembly polls in 2021. This time in 2026, the battle has become tougher with the resurgence in the Congress with the active participation of both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in the state's politics. Both the CPI and the CPI(M) are facing a major electoral challenge from the Congress this time. So, the CPI leadership has to concentrate its major energy on Kerala after the Bihar elections. As of now, Kerala is the only state which has a Left led government. This is a historic responsibility now for the Left to retain its control on the government after the 2026 polls.

After Kerala and Bihar, Tamil Nadu is the state where the CPI is expanding its organisation. In the assembly polls of 2021, the CPI as a part of the DMK led front got 8 seats in the assembly and in the last 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the CPI got two seats from Tamil Nadu as a part of the DMK led alliance. This time, the NDA led by AIADMK -BJP combination has been making all efforts to do better in the assembly polls. Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin is a seasoned leader and he has political acumen to lead a coalition of parties. Both the CPI and the CPI(M) have to work vigorously for the 2026 assembly polls to retain their present strength in the assembly.

For the CPI, the strengthening of the organisation is the key to its growth. The CPI had big strength in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh in 1960s and 1970s. The developments resulting from regional movements as also resurgence of caste politics hit badly the CPI organisation in the next decades. The party is yet to come out of this. Andhra Pradesh and present Telangana had many CPI strongholds. The party leadership has to give serious thought to the ways of rejuvenating the organisation in these two southern states. Similarly, much focus has to be given on energising the party units in Bihar and Jharkhand.

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As the third term general secretary of the CPI, Raja has to take special initiative to speed up the process of establishing more closer coordination between the three communist parties – CPI, CPI(M) and the CPI(ML)-L. The CPI(ML)-L has substantially expanded its political base in Bihar and Jharkhand. The party is now in a leading position in these two states in organising the movements of workers, peasants and tribals. The CPI and the CPI(M) have to involve themselves more with the CPI(ML)-L for giving a new push to the Left movement in the country. A joint initiative of the three chiefs D Raja , M A Baby and Dipankar Bhattacharya will be of big help at this moment in giving a direction to the national movement of the INDIA Bloc against the BJP.

The CPI(M)'s party congress was held in April this year. The CPI(M) is fighting a do or die battle to save the LDF government in Kerala led by it. For all the three communist parties, the time is appropriate to forget the minor policy differences and work jointly as a solid group along with the other democratic and secular parties, especially the Congress to fight the BJP for defeating it electorally both in state assembly polls and in the coming Lok Sabha polls in 2029. The battle against the Sangh Parivar has to be intensified. The three communist parties have to be in the driver's seat along with the Congress. (IPA Service )

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