CPI(M) defends Vijayan, says leadership is collective after Kerala defeat

Pinarayi Vijayan alone need not take “moral responsibility” for the Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) defeat in Kerala, CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby said, emphasising that the party functions as a collective entity and that Mr. Vijayan led the campaign as its senior-most member.

Mr. Baby also did not clarify who within the LDF will occupy the Leader of the Opposition position, amid widespread speculation over whether Mr. Vijayan will do so. The CPI has demanded the post of Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Mr. Baby’s remarks come in the backdrop of comments by CPI State secretary Binoy Viswam at the conclusion of his party’s two-day national council meeting in New Delhi, where he said the electoral defeat was a warning that communist organisations must give priority to the people. He also called for an evaluation of whether the Left’s cadres and those close to it had distanced themselves from the movement. Without naming anyone, Mr. Viswam underlined that individuals should not be promoted over ideology within Left parties, adding that such a tendency, if it had developed, would be a flaw.

At a press conference at the party headquarters at the end of a two-day meeting of the CPI(M)’s Polit Bureau, Mr. Baby responding to a question on whether Mr. Vijayan should resign from the Polit Bureau and Central Committee, taking responsibility for the LDF’s defeat, said, “Why should he take moral responsibility in Kerala? Our party is a collective entity.”

He further emphasised that Mr. Vijayan, the senior-most leader both by age and experience, led the campaign in the State by virtue of his position. “Had we won, we would have taken a call on who would be the Chief Minister,” he said.

On the question of the Leader of the Opposition in Kerala, Mr. Baby said the decision would be taken by the State unit and that it was not discussed at the Polit Bureau meeting.

Mr. Baby described the LDF’s defeat as “shocking”, notwithstanding what he called the commendable work done by the government over a decade while battling a “vindictive” Union government that tried to financially strangulate the State. He termed the BJP’s victory in three seats in Kerala a “disturbing development”.

SIR exercise in Bengal

He further said the BJP’s victory in West Bengal was due not only to anti-incumbency against the Mamata Banerjee government, but also to the Special Intensive Revision exercise. “The entire electoral process in India today is highly mutilated, fractured and without credibility,” Mr. Baby said.

The CPI’s national council also conducted a review on May 9 and 10. At a press conference at the conclusion of the meeting, CPI general secretary D. Raja underlined the need to build “broad-based mass resistance against the anti-people, authoritarian and divisive policies of the RSS-BJP regime.”

“At a time when the country is witnessing unprecedented unemployment, soaring prices of essential commodities, deepening agrarian distress, growing attacks on workers’ rights, communal polarisation and systematic assaults on democratic institutions and federalism, it is necessary to intensify direct political engagement with the masses,” Mr. Raja said. He announced that the CPI would organise nationwide marches from August 6 to August 15, 2026.