CPI(M)’s extended Keralam State committee meet begins in Kozhikode

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Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leaders raising slogans ahead of the extended State committee meeting of the party in Kozhikode on Sunday. | Photo Credit: K. Ragesh

Corrective steps to overcome organisational weaknesses are on top of the agenda as the extended three-day Keralam State committee meeting of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] is progressing in Kozhikode.

Select participants from across districts, and also representatives of the party’s class and mass organisations, will get a chance to air their views in an open debate on a draft report prepared by the State committee on the problems plaguing the CPI(M) following its rout in the Assembly elections in Keralam.

According to party sources, the participants, including district secretariat members, engaged themselves in district-based group discussions on Sunday afternoon (September 13, 2026), the first day of the meeting. From 7 p.m., the open debate started and was held for an hour. The debate will resume on Monday morning and will be held throughout the day.

Addressing the media earlier, State secretary M.V. Govindan said that the central committee and later the State committee had brought out review reports highlighting the party’s weaknesses. “Our efforts will be to correct those lapses and suggest improvement measures,” he said. Admitting that organisational problems were still persisting in the grassroots level, he said the State committee would directly intervene to sort them out. “Instead of entrusting the district committees to find a solution on their own, the State leadership is planning to step in there. In every three months or at least once in six months, the State committee will also examine if the corrective steps are being implemented properly,” Mr. Govindan said.

The CPI(M) leader described the attempt by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to implicate Leader of the Opposition and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan in corruption cases as yet another way to mount an attack on the party. Mr. Govindan also said that efforts would be made to resist the onslaught of the right-wing and communal forces in the State.

Meanwhile, opening the conference in the morning, party general secretary M.A. Baby claimed that the CPI(M) should have been more alert in responding to the “deliberate creation of a false perception,” which played a key role in the reverses suffered by the party in recent times. “We should have exposed this false narrative and defeated it, but we did not do it. There were some other lapses as well on our part. We need to correct these mistakes, regain the trust of the people and march forward,” Mr. Baby said.

Mr. Baby claimed that a situation akin to that of 1960, when the undivided Communist Party of India improved its vote percentage in the elections but lost power in the State, had happened in 2026 too. “The creation of false perceptions against the CPI(M) and its leaders began after the party-led front came back to power in the 2021 Assembly polls. One among them is that we have reached a deal with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party. That allegation has influenced a large number of people. We need to examine where we have made mistakes in countering such campaigns,” he said. The CPI(M) leader said that the party cadre should engage in, what he called, criticism of others and of themselves. “Many of our prominent leaders, including some who are at the helm now, have gone through the party’s rectification exercise. We have a time-tested method for corrective steps,” he added.

However, Mr. Baby did not say anything about the ED’s action.

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