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The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated '''CPI(M)''' or '''CPM''') is a Political Party in India . It has strong presence in the states of Kerala , West Bengal and Tripura . As of 2007, CPI(M) is leading the state governments in these 3 states. The party emerged out of a split from the Communist Party Of India in 1964 . CPI(M) claims to have 814,408 members as of 2002 . HISTORY ]] and Jyoti Basu ]] ]] ]] in Kolkata . 'Vote for CPI(M) candidates. Press this button.']] mural for the CPI(M) candidate in the Kolkata North East constituency in the 2004 Lok Sabha election, Mohammed Salim ]] Split in the Communist Party of India and formation of CPI(M) CPI(M) emerged out of a division within the Communist Party Of India (CPI). The undivided CPI had experienced a period of upsurge during the years following the Second World War . The CPI led armed rebellions in Telangana , Tripura and Kerala . However, it soon abandoned the strategy of armed revolution in favour of working within the parliamentary framework. In 1950 B.T. Ranadive , the CPI general secretary and a prominent representative of the radical sector inside the party, was demoted on grounds of left-adventurism. Under the government of the Congress Party of Jawaharlal Nehru , independent India embarked developed close relations and a strategic partnership with the Soviet Union . The Soviet government consequently wished that the Indian communists moderate their criticism towards the Indian state and assume a supportive role towards the Congress governments. However, large sections of the CPI claimed that India remained a semi-feudal country, and that class struggle could not be put on the back-burner for the sake of guarding interests of Soviet trade and foreign policy. Moreover the Indian National Congress appeared to be generally hostile towards political competition. In 1959 the central government intervened to impose President's Rule in Kerala , toppling the E.M.S. Namboodiripad cabinet (the sole non-Congress state government in the country). Simultaneously, the relations between the and the Workers Party Of India were also targeted. {Link without Title} Those targeted by the state accused the pro-Soviet leadership of the CPI of conspiring with the Congress government to ensure their own hegemony over the control of the party. In 1962 Ajoy Ghosh , the general secretary of the CPI, died. After his death, S.A. Dange was installed as the party chairman (a new position) and E.M.S. Namboodiripad as general secretary. This was an attempt to achieve a compromise. Dange represented the rightist fraction of the party and E.M.S. the leftist fraction. At a CPI National Council meeting held on April 11, 1964, 32 Council members walked out in protest, accusing Dange and his followers of "anti-unity and anti-Communist policies".The 32 were P. Sundarayya , M. Basavapunniah , T. Nagi Reddy , M. Hanumantha Rao , D.V. Rao , N. Prasad Rao , G. Bapanayya , E.M.S. Namboodiripad , A.K. Gopalan , A.V. Kunhambu , C.H. Kanaran , E.K. Nayanar , V.S. Achuthanandan , E.K. Imbichibava , Promode Das Gupta , Muzaffar Ahmad , Jyoti Basu , Abdul Halim , Hare Krishna Konar , Saroj Mukherjee , P. Ramamurthi , M.R. Venkataraman , N. Sankariah , K. Ramani , Harkishan Singh Surjeet , Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri , D.S. Tapiala , Dr. Bhag Singh , Sheo Kumar Mishra , R.N. Upadhyaya , Mohan Punamiya and R.P. Saraf . Source: Bose, Shanti Shekar; A Brief Note on the Contents of Documents of the Communist Movement in India. Kolkata: 2005, National Book Agency, p. 37. The leftist section, to which the 32 National Council members belong, organised a convention in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh July 7 to 11. In this convention the issues of the internal disputes in the party were discussed. 146 delegates, claiming to represent 100,000 CPI members, took part in the proceedings. The convention decided to convene the 7th Party Congress of CPI in Calcutta later the same year. Marking a difference from the Dangeite sector of CPI, the Tenali convention was marked by the display of a large portrait of the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong .Basu, Pradip. Towards Naxalbari (1953-1967) – An Account of Inner-Party Ideological Struggle. Calcutta : Progressive Publishers, 2000. p. 51. At the Tenali convention a Bengal-based pro-Chinese group, representing one of the most radical streams of the CPI leftwing, presented a draft programme proposal of their own. These radicals criticised the draft programme proposal prepared by M. Basavapunniah for undermining Class Struggle and failing to take a clear pro-Chinese position in the ideological conflict between CPSU and CPC. Suniti Kumar Ghosh was a member of the group that presented this alternative draft proposal. His grouping was one of several far-left tendencies in the Bengali party branch. Basu, Pradip. Towards Naxalbari (1953-1967) – An Account of Inner-Party Ideological Struggle. Calcutta : Progressive Publishers, 2000. p. 32. After the Tenali convention the CPI leftwing organised party district and state conferences. In West Bengal, a few of these meetings became battlegrounds between the most radical elements and the more moderate leadership. At the Calcutta Party District Conference an alternative draft programme was presented to the leadership by Parimal Das Gupta (a leading figure amongst far-left intellectuals in the party). Another alternative proposal was brought forward to the Calcutta Party District Conference by Azizul Haque, but Haque was initially banned from presenting it by the conference organisers. At the Calcutta Party District Conference 42 delegates opposed M. Basavapunniah’s official draft programme proposal. At the Siliguri Party District Conference, the main draft proposal for a party programme was accepted, but with some additional points suggested by the far-left North Bengal cadre Charu Majumdar . However, Harekrishna Konar (representing the leadership of the CPI leftwing) forbade the raising of the slogan ''Mao Tse-Tung Zindabad'' (Long live Mao Tse-Tung) at the conference. Parimal Das Gupta's document was also presented to the leadership at the West Bengal State Conference of the CPI leftwing. Das Gupta and a few other spoke at the conference, demanding the party ought to adopt the class analysis of the Indian state of the 1951 CPI conference. His proposal was, however, voted down.Basu, Pradip. Towards Naxalbari (1953-1967) – An Account of Inner-Party Ideological Struggle. Calcutta : Progressive Publishers, 2000. p. 52-54. The Calcutta Congress was held between October 31 and November 7, at Tyagraja Hall in southern Calcutta. Simultaneously, the Dange group convened a Party Congress of CPI in Bombay . Thus, the CPI divided into two separate parties. The group which assembled in Calcutta decided to adopt the name 'Communist Party of India (Marxist)', in order to differentiate themselves from the Dange group. The CPI(M) also adopted its own political programme. P. Sundarayya was elected general secretary of the party. In total 422 delegates took part in the Calcutta Congress. CPI(M) claimed that they represented 104,421 CPI members, 60% of the total party membership. At the Calcutta conference the party adopted a class analysis of the character of the Indian state, that claimed the Indian big Bourgeoisie was increasingly collaborating with Imperialism .Basu, Pradip. Towards Naxalbari (1953-1967) – An Account of Inner-Party Ideological Struggle. Calcutta : Progressive Publishers, 2000. p. 54. Parimal Das Gupta’s alternative draft programme was not circulated at the Calcutta conference. However Souren Basu , a delegate from the far-left stronghold Darjeeling , spoke at the conference asking why no portrait had been raised of Mao Tse-Tung along the portraits of other communist stalwarts. His intervention met with huge applauses from the delegates of the conference.Basu, Pradip. Towards Naxalbari (1953-1967) – An Account of Inner-Party Ideological Struggle. Calcutta : Progressive Publishers, 2000. p. 54. There is a common misconception that the rift during Sino-Indian war lead to the 1962 split. In fact, the split was leftists vs rightists, rather than internationalists vs nationalists. The presence of nationalists A. K. Gopalan , and E.M.S. Namboothirippad , and internationalists P. Sundarayya , Jyoti Basu , and Harkishan Singh Surjeet in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) proves this fact. Early years of CPI(M) The CPI(M) was born into a hostile political climate. At the time of the holding of its Calcutta Congress, large sections of its leaders and cadres were jailed without trial. Again on December 29-30, over a thousand CPI(M) cadres were arrested, and held in jail without trial. In 1965 new waves of arrests of CPI(M) cadres took place in West Bengal , as the party launched agitations against the rise in fares in the Calcutta Tramways and against the then prevailing food crisis. State-wide general strikes and Hartal s were observed on August 5, 1965, March 10-11, 1966 and April 6, 1966. The March 1966 general strike results in several deaths in confrontations with police forces. Also in Kerala, mass arrests of CPI(M) cadres were carried out during 1965. In Bihar , the party called for a '' Bandh '' (general strike) in Patna on August 9, 1965 in protest against the Congress state government. During the strike, police resorted to violent actions against the organisers of the strike. The strike was followed by agitations in other parts of the state. The Central Committee of CPI(M) held its first meeting on June 12-19 1966. The reason for delaying the holding of a regular CC meeting was the fact that several of the persons elected as CC members at the Calcutta Congress were jailed at the time.The jailed members of the new CC, at the time of the Calcutta Congress, were during the last days of 1964, but had been cancelled due to the wave of arrests against the party. 1967 General Election In the 1967 of the Bangla Congress (a regional splinter-group of the Indian National Congress). Naxalbari uprising At this point the party now stood at a crossroad. Some sectors were wary of the increasing parliamentary focus of the party leadership, especially after the electoral victories in West Bengal and Kerala. Developments in China also affected the situation inside the party. In West Bengal two separate internal dissident tendencies emerged, which both could be identified as supporting the Chinese line.According to Basu (in Basu, Pradip; Towards Naxalbari (1953 - 67) : An Account Of Inner-Party Ideological Struggle. Calcutta: Progressive Publishers, 2000.) there were two nuclei of radicals in the party organisation in West Bengal. One 'theorist' section around Parimal Das Gupta in Calcutta, which wanted to persuade the party leadership to correct revionist mistakes through inner-party debate, and one 'actionist' section led by . Following the 1968 Burdwan plenum of CPI(M) (held on April 5-12, 1968), the AICCCR separated themselves from CPI(M). This splits divided the party throughout the country. But notably in West Bengal, which was the epicentre of the violent radicalist stream, no prominent leading figure left the party. The party and the Naxalite s (as the rebels were called) were soon to get into a bloody feud, a conflict which continues until today. In Andhra Pradesh another revolt was taking place. There the pro-Naxalbari dissidents had not established any presence. But in the party organisation there were many veterans from the Telangana armed struggle, who rallied against the central party leadership. In Andhra Pradesh the radicals had a strong base even amongst the state-level leadership. The main leader of the radical tendency was , under the leadership of T. Nagi Reddy.Some perceive that the Chinese leadership severely misjudged the actual conditions of different Indian factions at the time, giving their full support to the Majumdar-Sanyal group whilst keeping the Andhra Pradesh radicals (that had a considerable mass following) at distance. Dismissal of United Front governments in West Bengal and Kerala In November 1967, the West Bengal United Front government was dismissed by the central government. Initially the Indian National Congress formed a minority government led by P.C. Joshi , but that cabinet did not last long. Following the proclamation that the United Front government had been dislodged, a 48-hartal was effective throughout the state. After the fall of the Joshi cabinet, the state was but under President's Rule. CPI(M) launched agitations against the interventions of the central government in West Bengal. The 8th Party Congress of CPI(M) was held in Cochin , Kerala, on December 23-29, 1968. The United Front government in Kerala was forced out of office in October 1969, as the CPI, RSP, KTP and Muslim League ministers resigned. E.M.S. Namboodiripad handed in is resignation on October 24. {Link without Title} A coalition government led by CPI leader C. Achutha Menon was formed, with the outside support of the Indian National Congress . Elections in West Bengal and Kerala election propaganda for the CPI(M) candidate in the Kolkata South constituency in the 2004 Lok Sabha election, Rabin Dev]] Fresh elections were held in West Bengal in 1969. CPI(M) contested 97 seats, and won 80. The party was now the largest in the West Bengal legislative.Indian National Congress had won 55 seats, Bangla Congress 33 and CPI 30. CPI(M) allies also won several seats. ECI: Statistical Report on the 1969 West Bengal Legislative Election But with the active support of CPI and the Bangla Congress, Ajoy Mukherjee was returned as Chief Minister of the state. Mukherjee resigned on March 16 1970, after a pact had been reached between CPI, Bangla Congress and the Indian National Congress against CPI(M). CPI(M) strove to form a new government, instead but the central government put the state under President's Rule. In Kerala fresh elections were held in 1970. CPI(M) contested 73 seats and won 29. After the election Achutha Menon formed a new ministry, including ministers from the Indian National Congress. Formation of CITU state conference mural]] Following the 1964 split, CPI(M) cadres had remained active with the All India Trade Union Congress . But as relations between CPI and CPI(M) soured, with the backdrop of confrontations in West Bengal and Kerala, a split also surfaced in the AITUC. In December 1969, eight CPI(M) members walked out of a AITUC Working Committee meeting. The eight called for an All India Trade Union Convention, which was held in Goa April 9-10, 1970. The convention decided that all All India Trade Union Conference be held on May 28-31 in Calcutta. The Calcutta conference would be the founding conference of the Centre Of Indian Trade Unions , a new pro-CPI(M) trade union movement.Bose, Shanti Shekar; A Brief Note on the Contents of Documents of the Communist Movement in India. Kolkata: 2005, National Book Agency, p. 56-59 Outbreak of war in East Pakistan In 1971 Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan ) declared its independence from Pakistan . The Pakistani military tried to quell the uprising. India intervened militarily and gave active backing to the Bangladeshi Resistance . Millions of Bangladeshi refugees sought shelter in India, especially in West Bengal. At the time the radical sections of the Bangladeshi communist movement was divided into many factions. Whilst the pro-Soviet Communist Party Of Bangladesh actively participated in the resistance struggle, the pro-China communist tendency found itself in a peculiar situation as China had sided with Pakistan in the war. In Calcutta, were many Bangladeshi leftists had sought refugee, CPI(M) worked to coordinate the efforts to create a new political organization. In the fall of 1971 three small groups, which were all hosted by the CPI(M), came together to form the Bangladesh Communist Party (Leninist) . The new party became the sister party of CPI(M) in Bangladesh.The same is also true for the Workers Party Of Bangladesh , which was formed in 1980 when BCP(L) merged with other groups. Although politically close, WPB can be said to have a more Maoist-oriented profile than CPI(M). 1971 General Election With the backdrop of the Bangladesh War and the emerging role of Indira Gandhi as a populist national leader, the 1971 election to the Lok Sabha was held. CPI(M) contested 85 seats, and won in 25. In total the party mustered 7510089 votes (5.12% of the national vote). 20 of the seats came from West Bengal (including Somnath Chatterjee , elected from Burdwan), 2 from Kerala (including A.K. Gopalan, elected from Trichur), 2 from Tripura (Biren Dutta and Dasarath Deb ) and 1 from Andhra Pradesh. ECI: Statistical Report on the 1971 Lok Sabha Election In the same year, state legislative elections were held in three states; West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Orissa. In West Bengal CPI(M) had 241 candidates, winning 113 seats. In total the party mustered 4241557 votes (32.86% of the state-wide vote). In Tamil Nadu CPI(M) contested 37 seats, but drew blank. The party got 259298 votes (1.65% of the state-wide vote). In Orissa the party contested 11 seats, and won in two. The CPI(M) vote in the state was 52785 (1.2% of the state-wide vote). ECI: Statistical Report on the 1971 Orissa Legislative Election , ECI: Statistical Report on the 1971 Tamil Nadu Legislative Election , ECI: Statistical Report on the 1971 West Bengal Legislative Election 1970s, 1980s, 1990s In 1972, many party cadets were arrested in West Bengal during the emergency period as per knowings. Honorable Indira Gandhi was the Congress Prime Minister in the Centre then. In the 1977 election, the CPI(M) finally gained the majority in the Legislative Assembly of the State of West Bengal, defeating the Congress (I). Jyoti Basu became the chief minister of West Bengal, an office he held until his retirement. The CPI(M) has held the majority in the West Bengal government continuously since 1977. PARTY ORGANIZATION ]] state conference poster]] state conference poster]] CPI(M) got 5.66% of votes polled in last Parliamentary Election (May 2004) and it has 43 MPs. It won 42.31% on an average in the 69 seats it contested. It supports the new Indian National Congress -led United Progressive Alliance government, but without becoming a part of it. In West Bengal and Tripura it participates in the Left Front . In Kerala the party is part of the Left Democratic Front . In Tamil Nadu it is part of the Progressive Democratic Alliance. Leadership The current general secretary of CPI(M) is Prakash Karat. The CPI(M) MP Somnath Chatterjee is the speaker of the Lok Sabha (2004). The 18th party congress of CPI(M), held in Delhi April 6-11 2005 elected a Central Committee with 85 members. The Central Committee later elected a 17-member Politburo :
The principal mass organizations of CPI(M)
In Tripura , the Ganamukti Parishad is a major mass organization amongst the Tribal peoples of the state. In Kerala the Adivasi Kshema Samithi , a tribal organisation is controlled by CPI(M). This apart, on the cultural front as many as 12 major organisations are led by CPI(M). Party Publications From the Centre, two weekly newspapers are published, ''People's Democracy'' (English) and ''Lok Lehar'' (Hindi). The central theoretical organ of the party is ''Marxist'', published quarterly in English. Daily Newspapers
Weeklies
Fortnightlies
Monthlies
Ideological Publications Publishing Houses
NAME In Hindi CPI(M) is often called मार्क्सवादी कमयुनिस्त पार्टी (''Marksvadi Kamyunist Party'', abbreviated ''MaKaPa''). The official party name in Hindi is however ''Bharat ki Kamyunist Party (Marksvadi)''. In Tamil the party is known as இந்திய கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சி (மார்க்சிஸ்ட்) (''Intia Kamyunist Katchi (Marksist)''). In Malayalam it is written as കമ്മ്യൂണിസ്റ്റ് പാര്ട്ടി ഓഫ് ഇന്ത്യ (മാര്ക്സിസ്റ്റ്). During the initial period after the split 1964, the party was often referred to as 'Left Communist Party' or 'Communist Party of India (Left)'. The CPI was then, in the same parlance, dubbed as the 'Rightist Communist Party'. SPLITS AND OFFSHOOTS A large number of parties have been formed as a result of splits from the CPI(M), such as Communist Party Of India (Marxist-Leninist) , Marxist Communist Party Of India , Marxist Coordination Committee in Jharkhand , Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy , Communist Marxist Party and BTR-EMS-AKG Janakeeya Vedi in Kerala , Party Of Democratic Socialism in West Bengal , Janganotantrik Morcha in Tripura , the Ram Pasla Group in Punjab , Orissa Communist Party in Orissa , etc. ELECTION RESULTS see CPI(M) Election Results . EXTERNAL LINKS Articles
Party related websites
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