Kerala’s MA Baby CPM gen secy

Kerala veteran MA Baby was elected as the CPM’s sixth general secretary on Sunday.

He’s the second leader from the Kerala unit of the party to make it to the top after communist patriarch EMS Namboodiripad.

The 24th party congress decided to increase the number of Politburo members to 18 from the existing 17. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, already on extension, was given a further extension in the Politburo. Veterans Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Sarkar and Ali, who stepped down from the Politburo due to the age criterion, have been made invitees.

Eight new Politburo members were elected. They are Mariyam Dhawale (Maharashtra), U Vasuki (Tamil Nadu), Amra Ram (Rajasthan), Vijoo Krishnan (Delhi), Arun Kumar (Delhi), Jithendra Choudhary (Tripura), Sreedeep Bhattacharya (West Bengal) and K Balakrishnan (Tamil Nadu).

Baby (70) has moved up the ranks of the CPM ever since he was part of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and later the youth wing of the party — the DYFI. He was a Rajya Sabha member from 1986 to 1998. He belongs to a group of party leaders who believe the CPM must work to regain its mass appeal.

In a first, an election was held to the party’s central committee after Maharashtra leader DL Karad chose to contest. Though he lost after bagging only 31 votes, the unprecedented development has taken the party by surprise. The party congress elected an 84-member central committee and one slot was left vacant.

Baby takes over at a time when the CPM has been mostly confined to the southern end of the country, specifically Kerala. The Kerala leader has a challenging task ahead — to win back the party’s lost appeal in other parts of the country, especially West Bengal and Tripura, where the party has suffered colossal electoral losses.

With 11 of the 16-member party Politburo supporting his name, Baby had an easy going even though the party’s West Bengal faction was in favour of Maharashtra leader Ashok Dhawale.

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