CPI(M) gets into election mode

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has begun taking the first tentative steps towards the 2011 Assembly elections giving preliminary hints about the political plank on which it would fight the admittedly difficult elections.

The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) had begun its fourth year in office without much hope of making the grade two years from then, but it has since benefited somewhat from the confusion in the Opposition ranks, particularly after the Kerala Congress(J) decided to ride piggyback on the rival Kerala Congress(M) into the United Democratic Front camp and the turbulence evident within the Congress.

The exit of the KC(J) had taken the CPI(M) by surprise and it is aware of the loss in ground support that the KC(J) move has brought about. The relationship between the CPI(M) and the KC(J) had been remaining strained for quite sometime now. Therefore, the CPI(M) was not too perturbed by the sudden end to the unhappy marriage. What is better, it is currently seeing in the break up of the two-decades-old relationship the fragile chance to explore new electoral possibilities. The partys waning enthusiasm to get the P.C. Thomas faction of the Kerala Congress into the alliance could be read with this new realisation.