Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan: CPM’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharya

For CPM in Kerala, the writing is clear, barring Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and all others associated with Left coalition parties could read what awaits them unless urgent corrective measures are taken. The first thing on their mind was to do away with Pinarayi Vijayan’s leadership and his corrupt legacy. The lower level leaders are currently muttering in whispers. It may not take much time before they collectively open up and loudly demand Pinarayi’s removal. CPM and other left cadre are worried about their fate in Kerala politics as their minds are filled with the terrible situation; their Bengali counterparts came under pressure for the silence they maintained when governance was challenged under Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee during 2006-2011. The Left was decimated in the 2011 elections due to poor governance under CPM leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and there has been no recovery since. The Left was reduced to irrelevance in Bengal politics, with the BJP capturing the second spot, leaving the Left without representation both in the Assembly and Lok Sabha. A repeat of that situation is beginning in Kerala, and that means the ‘extinction’ of communists in Indian politics, and such a scene is a dreaded one even for the Left. No party wants to die a natural death, and the CPM and other left parties are no exception. But when exceptional political circumstances develop and prevail for too long, and leaders fail to address that situation, it will be difficult for a party to survive. is where the Left cadre feels in Kerala now.

In Kerala, before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Left was euphoric as they had just broken Kerala’s political norm of no coalition and won two consecutive elections in that state. Full credit for the 2016 election victory and retention of power in the 2021 elections went to Pinarayi Vijayan, and even CPM praised his leadership and strategy. The victory in the 2023 local elections boosted the LDF’s confidence and Pinarayi became an unquestionable leader of the Left. Drunk with power, Pinarayi Vijayan buried his head like an ostrich in the backwaters of Kerala with the belief that no one can detect his misdeeds. The pro-left media of Kerala failed in its responsibility to expose the unacceptable acts under Pinarayi. However, sensing the dangers of continued Left rule, Malayalam voters took a wise decision to leave the Left bleeding with a single Lok Sabha seat. The CPM and the Left parties are less concerned about the defeat and more hurt by the BJP’s first entry into Lok Sabha storming the red citadel. In the electoral scene of Kerala, prior to the current Lok Sabha victory, the BJP’s track record was a win of one seat in the assembly in seven decades. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA, led by the BJP, asserted its political power by coming first in eleven constituencies and second in another eight. Political observers believe that with the kind of political gains the BJP made in 2024, the next Assembly elections in Kerala, scheduled for 2026, may not be bipolar as it has been in the past decades, but certainly a tripolar one, with the BJP the third front leads in about 30 constituencies of the state.

Pinarayi Vijayan, the hero of the Left’s 2021 election victory, is now the villain after the 2024 Lok Sabha results for the LDF. The obvious comparison with the then Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee started to radiate. It was Buddhadev who blamed the CPM as the reason for Bengal’s decision to throw the communists into the Bay of Bengal in 2011. Like Kerala’s Pinarayi, Bengal’s Budhadeb also gave the Left two consecutive victories in the 2001 and 2016 elections and won then the party. down the slope into a swamp. To observers, the similarities are clear. While the defeat of the Left in Bengal has been attributed to the administrative and political inability to tackle the Singur and Nandigram agitations of farmers over the acquisition of their agricultural lands for setting up a nano car factory by Tatas, the other main reasons were the functioning of the government as a CPM organization that caters to all the corrupt demands of the party leaders. The indulgence of the party cadres and leaders in making money through politically manipulative activities was then widespread. There was also corruption in high places.

The current situation in Kerala is no different from that of Buddhadeb-era Bengal. However, there is little difference in corrupt practices. If the state of Bengal under Buddhadeb experienced the ‘socialist corruption’ where every communist leader got his share of the ill-gotten money; In Kerala under Pinnarayi, on the other hand, corruption is ‘centralised’, with a large part of the tainted rupee reaching the chief minister or his inner circle. It was a more organised, highly specialized corrupt practice, some incidents of which had international consequences. It is not an accusation, but gold smuggling from the Gulf, through specially appointed security and control departments and even the Pinarayi family using diplomatic channels for safe gold smuggling, is a reality. His own secretary was arrested, as were people close to him.

When Jyoti Basu led the Left government, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee resigned from the cabinet and the ministry branded Jyoti Basu as one of the criminals and thieves (choreder montrshobha). Now, many ruling party MLAs in Kerala are leveling the same allegations against the Pinarayi cabinet. Opposition criticism regarding governance and corruption against the ruling party is quite common, but here in Kerala, three MLAs Anvar, KT Jaleel and Karat Razack, all closely associated with the CPM, are making specific claims about the close circle of politicians and officials who formed a corrupt group, encouraged and supported by the CM. Sasi, the CM’s political secretary, looks after the Ministry of Home Affairs on behalf of CM Pinarayi. Sasi has a history as political secretary of former CPM CM EK Nayanar and subsequently faced the accusation for his role in the infamous 1997 ice cream parlor sex case.

Sasi was accused by a woman worker of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). Sasi was then demoted by the CPM and after some time such a character was revived and accommodated as a close aide to CM by the higher ups of the CPM and gave control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. This was done, as their own party members claim, to get the tainted fundraisers into the official corridors without public supervision. Sasi controls the home department and the entire Kerala police force serves the interests of the CPM with his orders. The ADGP-MR Ajith Kumar is singled out as the ‘super cop’ who helps the CPM and Pinarayi Vijayan through his links in ‘gold smuggling and criminal syndicates’ and wealth acquisition. The recorded telephone conversation of a serving SP with an MLA making damning allegations is circulating on social media. The contents of that phone call include the details of ‘the elaborate hassle surrounding the pocketing of the gold seized from the smugglers arriving at Kozhikode airport from the Middle East’.

By then, all Indians are aware of the Pinarayi’s attempt to suppress the Justice Hema Committee report on alleged sexual exploitation in the Malayalam film industry. The committee report submitted almost five years ago was purposefully kept in a safe on flimsy grounds as some people close to the ruling left parties are involved in the exploitation of film actresses.

Every day, more allegations are coming out against Pinarayi Vijayan, including his own preferences for his son-in-law, who is also a ministerial colleague. Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena married Muhamad Riyas and son-in-law was given an important portfolio. There were confessional statements from those arrested in gold smuggling cases, saying that Pinarayi’s family was the beneficiary of this smuggled gold. With each revelation, the CMP lost its credibility in the society of Kerala.

CM Pinarayi Vijayan, instead of addressing the complaints, is luring rebellious candidates to his own party and threatening the critics and media with lawsuits. The opposition parties are demanding that action be taken first against his own party mouthpieces because they themselves raised the issues of corruption in high positions. CPI leader Raja accused Pinarayi Vijayan of abusing the BJP leadership to save him and his family from the ED probe cases. The investigation conducted so far shows that there is suspicion at CM’s official residence or at CM’s close relatives. The ED’s move to Pinarayi’s official residence is a matter of time.

It is against this backdrop that the CPM cadre is talking about replicating the Budhadeb Bhattacharya period for their party in Kerala. At the polling booth where Pinarayi and his family are voters, the vote went against the CPM candidate, signaling confirmation that Pinarayi will lead the party in Kerala just like Buddhadeb did for the party in Bengal. The confirmation of that equation could soon become a reality, and that reality deplores the other partners in the LDF.