Having wrapped up their respective party congresses, the leaders of the two major Left parties — the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India — met here on Tuesday to chalk out the broad contours of united action in the near future.
Briefing presspersons after meeting the new CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, his CPI counterpart, Sudhakar Reddy, said: “We hope that the united activity we are doing will be further strengthened under his leadership in the face of the offensive from the BJP.”
On the prospects of reunification, the two general secretaries held different positions. “Our Party Congress reiterated our desire for reunification,” Mr. Reddy said. Mr. Yechury’s position was that a merger would not be possible until the ideological differences that led to the split of the CPI in 1964, which led to the formation of the CPI(M), were resolved in the first place.
‘Issues unresolved’
Before heading for Visakhapatnam for the 21st CPI(M) Party Congress, Mr. Yechury had told The Hindu: “Communist unity is not a merger on the basis of tactical considerations, but will have to be on ideological and programmatic considerations. After all, why did the Left split in the first place? Those ideological issues have to be resolved first. Merger is not on the agenda just now, but what is on the agenda is working together; that will be much more sustainable.”
The CPI, on the other hand, has been in favour of a reunification since 1989. Party national secretary D. Raja, who accompanied Mr. Reddy to the meeting with Mr. Yechury, said the party had then called for the reunification on a principled basis, and “We have been consistently advocating that position since then.”
To meet in May
As of now, the leaderships of the two parties plan to meet in the second half of May after the first full Polit Bureau meeting of the CPI(M) mid-month. Thereafter, a meeting of the six Left parties that have come together on one platform since last year is being planned. While the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc have been part of such a front for decades now, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) and the CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation joined the fold last year after a renewed effort by the CPI(M) at Left unity following the worst performance of the Left parties in a Lok Sabha election last year.
As for the coincidence of the two Left parties having Telugu-speaking general secretaries, as was the case immediately after the 1964 split, both brushed it off with a smile. Immediately after the split, the CPI was lead by C. Rajeswara Rao and the CPI(M) by P. Sundarayya, both from undivided Andhra Pradesh.
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