No body is surprised at the dismal performance of the LDF, especially the CPI (M) in Kerala. That they will be made to bite the dust was a foregone conclusion. However, their poor performance at the national level has really been surprising.
In Kerala the LDF got just four seats, fourteen seats less than what they got last time. No deep analysis is required to find out the reasons for the debacle. Their failure can be attributed to four major reasons.
v The Lavalin case
v Their big brother attitude towards their partners
v Their association with the PDP and others
v And the factionalism in the party
The Lavalin case came up to the public view in 2005 when the Comptroller and the Auditor General stated that the state incurred a loss of Rs. 374.50 crore as the renovation of three power stations in the state was a total failure. The Canadian company Lavalin had been given the job of renovation of Panniyar, Chenkulam and Pallivasal power projects. The present CPM State Secretary Mr.Pinarayi Vijayan was the Electricity Minister at that time, in 1997.The Auditor General observed that the expenditure of 20.31 crores were avoidable. He also pointed out that the state had received only Rs 10.62 crores of Rs 100 crores Lavalin had promised. Lavalin had, as part of the contract, promised to donate Rs 100 crores to The Malabar Cancer Institute. As of today the company has paid only Rs 10.62 crores.
The CBI had been asked to look into the case. The CBI after a prolonged enquiry submitted a report. The CBI requested the government to let it prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan. The government sent the CBI report to the Advocate General and asked to advise the government whether to allow the CBI to prosecute Vijayan or not.
It seems that the people of the state had concluded that there was something more than meets the eye to the case and that Vijayan had many things to hide. Moreover, the Chief Minister was saying that all corruption charges will be looked into. The Chief Minister did not show much enthusiasm when Vijayan traveled from Kasarkode to Thiruvanathapuram to show that the people are still behind him. Indeed, the Chief Minister addressed the gathering at the Sangumugam beach. But it was obvious that he was trying to avoid an open confrontation with the party.
The manner in which the CPM especially the secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, treated their partners betrayed its big brother attitude. Whether it was the RSP or CPI or PDP, the CPM wanted all of them to fall in line and obey Vijayan’s dictates. The only voice that mattered in CPM was that of Vijayan as if he was the only person that mattered in the party. The central leadership did not intervene to bring about some sort of agreement among the warring groups. It left everything to the leaders of the state to sort things out. Although the RSP declared that it would leave the front unless the Kollam seat was given to it, it did not do so. It just obeyed Pinarayi and gave up its claim for the seat. The UDF candidate Mr.Peethabara Kurup won the Kollam seat by a margin of 17,531 votes. He defeated P.Rajendran of the LDF who had won the seat in 2004 with a margin of
1, 11,071 votes. CPI also had to accept the dictates of the CPM, especially at Ponnani. So fed up were Veliyam Bhargavan, K.E.Ismail and Panniyan Ravindran that they walked out of the A.K.G centre when the CPM stuck to its position that it would decide the candidate for the Ponnani constituency. As he walked out Veliyam had said “We will decide the candidate for all the four seats. It will be solely our decision s to who will contest from the four seats including Ponnani”. However in the end the CPM had its way and Hussein Randathani was fielded at Ponnani. Hussein is a follower of Kanthapuram A.P. Abbobacker Musaliar. E.T.Muhammed Basheer of the Muslim League won the Ponnani seat with a margin of 82,684. Only M.P.Veerandrakumar of the Janata Dal dared to defy Pinarayi. When Veerandarakumar made it clear that he could not go along with the LDF, Pinarayi ridiculed them saying that they are walking out just for one seat. But he should have kept in mind that they had just one seat. When the results came out, in Kannur, Wayanadu, Vadakara and Kozhikode the LDF candidates lost to the UDF. The immediate reaction of Mr.Veerendrakumar was that the drubbing the left received at the hands of the people of Kerala was a fitting reply to the haughty behaviour of Pinarayi.
Although almost everyone, apart from his cohorts, opposed the association with the P.D.P and its leader Abdul Nassar Madani, Pinarayi went of his way to share public platforms with Madani. He thought he could snatch the Muslim votes from the Muslim League and make the party irrelevant in Kerala. When many pointed out to him that Madani had served a prison sentence in the Coimbatoor blast case, Pinarayi retorted that no court in the country had convicted him. Not only had that he went to the extent of certifying that Madani was a secular leader of the Muslims. For quite some time Pinarayi has been behaving as if he knew the pulse of the people more than any body else and that he is the best strategist around in the party.
Factionalism is as much a bane of the C.P.M, as it is of all the other parties. The fact that the Chief Minister Achudanandan, and the State Secretary of the party Pinarayi Vijayan do not see eye to eye is public knowledge. Achudanandan is seen as an orthodox leader, while Pinarayi is seen as the moderniser who wants to tread a different path. In fact Achudanandan was denied a ticket to contest the election three years back. But later the party had to bow to the sentiment of its cadre. Whatever the Chief Minister did, it was interpreted as a move to checkmate the secretary. And the secretary always tried to belittle the Chief Minister and convince the people that power rested with him not with the Chief Minister. Unfortunately, many of Achudanandan’s cabinet colleagues sided with Pinarayi in the fight between the Chief Minister and the Secretary. The central leadership did nothing to iron out the differences between the two leaders. It seems that it was helpless. That dealt a heavy blow on the ability of the party to perform its duty by the people.
And the people, when their turn came, handed out the party the drubbing it deserved.
In Kerala the LDF got just four seats, fourteen seats less than what they got last time. No deep analysis is required to find out the reasons for the debacle. Their failure can be attributed to four major reasons.
v The Lavalin case
v Their big brother attitude towards their partners
v Their association with the PDP and others
v And the factionalism in the party
The Lavalin case came up to the public view in 2005 when the Comptroller and the Auditor General stated that the state incurred a loss of Rs. 374.50 crore as the renovation of three power stations in the state was a total failure. The Canadian company Lavalin had been given the job of renovation of Panniyar, Chenkulam and Pallivasal power projects. The present CPM State Secretary Mr.Pinarayi Vijayan was the Electricity Minister at that time, in 1997.The Auditor General observed that the expenditure of 20.31 crores were avoidable. He also pointed out that the state had received only Rs 10.62 crores of Rs 100 crores Lavalin had promised. Lavalin had, as part of the contract, promised to donate Rs 100 crores to The Malabar Cancer Institute. As of today the company has paid only Rs 10.62 crores.
The CBI had been asked to look into the case. The CBI after a prolonged enquiry submitted a report. The CBI requested the government to let it prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan. The government sent the CBI report to the Advocate General and asked to advise the government whether to allow the CBI to prosecute Vijayan or not.
It seems that the people of the state had concluded that there was something more than meets the eye to the case and that Vijayan had many things to hide. Moreover, the Chief Minister was saying that all corruption charges will be looked into. The Chief Minister did not show much enthusiasm when Vijayan traveled from Kasarkode to Thiruvanathapuram to show that the people are still behind him. Indeed, the Chief Minister addressed the gathering at the Sangumugam beach. But it was obvious that he was trying to avoid an open confrontation with the party.
The manner in which the CPM especially the secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, treated their partners betrayed its big brother attitude. Whether it was the RSP or CPI or PDP, the CPM wanted all of them to fall in line and obey Vijayan’s dictates. The only voice that mattered in CPM was that of Vijayan as if he was the only person that mattered in the party. The central leadership did not intervene to bring about some sort of agreement among the warring groups. It left everything to the leaders of the state to sort things out. Although the RSP declared that it would leave the front unless the Kollam seat was given to it, it did not do so. It just obeyed Pinarayi and gave up its claim for the seat. The UDF candidate Mr.Peethabara Kurup won the Kollam seat by a margin of 17,531 votes. He defeated P.Rajendran of the LDF who had won the seat in 2004 with a margin of
1, 11,071 votes. CPI also had to accept the dictates of the CPM, especially at Ponnani. So fed up were Veliyam Bhargavan, K.E.Ismail and Panniyan Ravindran that they walked out of the A.K.G centre when the CPM stuck to its position that it would decide the candidate for the Ponnani constituency. As he walked out Veliyam had said “We will decide the candidate for all the four seats. It will be solely our decision s to who will contest from the four seats including Ponnani”. However in the end the CPM had its way and Hussein Randathani was fielded at Ponnani. Hussein is a follower of Kanthapuram A.P. Abbobacker Musaliar. E.T.Muhammed Basheer of the Muslim League won the Ponnani seat with a margin of 82,684. Only M.P.Veerandrakumar of the Janata Dal dared to defy Pinarayi. When Veerandarakumar made it clear that he could not go along with the LDF, Pinarayi ridiculed them saying that they are walking out just for one seat. But he should have kept in mind that they had just one seat. When the results came out, in Kannur, Wayanadu, Vadakara and Kozhikode the LDF candidates lost to the UDF. The immediate reaction of Mr.Veerendrakumar was that the drubbing the left received at the hands of the people of Kerala was a fitting reply to the haughty behaviour of Pinarayi.
Although almost everyone, apart from his cohorts, opposed the association with the P.D.P and its leader Abdul Nassar Madani, Pinarayi went of his way to share public platforms with Madani. He thought he could snatch the Muslim votes from the Muslim League and make the party irrelevant in Kerala. When many pointed out to him that Madani had served a prison sentence in the Coimbatoor blast case, Pinarayi retorted that no court in the country had convicted him. Not only had that he went to the extent of certifying that Madani was a secular leader of the Muslims. For quite some time Pinarayi has been behaving as if he knew the pulse of the people more than any body else and that he is the best strategist around in the party.
Factionalism is as much a bane of the C.P.M, as it is of all the other parties. The fact that the Chief Minister Achudanandan, and the State Secretary of the party Pinarayi Vijayan do not see eye to eye is public knowledge. Achudanandan is seen as an orthodox leader, while Pinarayi is seen as the moderniser who wants to tread a different path. In fact Achudanandan was denied a ticket to contest the election three years back. But later the party had to bow to the sentiment of its cadre. Whatever the Chief Minister did, it was interpreted as a move to checkmate the secretary. And the secretary always tried to belittle the Chief Minister and convince the people that power rested with him not with the Chief Minister. Unfortunately, many of Achudanandan’s cabinet colleagues sided with Pinarayi in the fight between the Chief Minister and the Secretary. The central leadership did nothing to iron out the differences between the two leaders. It seems that it was helpless. That dealt a heavy blow on the ability of the party to perform its duty by the people.
And the people, when their turn came, handed out the party the drubbing it deserved.
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