After more than 3 decades, the jinx has been broken by Left Democratic Front. In a state that sees a 5 year rule which changes hands from UDF to LDF and then to UDF, the tradition changed this time.
With 99 seats in its kitty the CPM led LDF is now facing a problem of plenty. The usual difference between the UDF and LDF in the 140 member Kerala Legislative Assembly, is margin of 5 to 10 seats. But this time, that margin has been exceeded by a huge distance. So, as the LDF gets down to deciding of ministerships, one is seeing a huge change coming up. CPM on its part has decided that they will have a totally new team to the extent of dropping outgoing Health Minister KK Shailaja. She was considered a sure-shot with an overhyped claim of having led Kerala out of the Covid19 disaster. That paid PR campaign which included International News outfits like New York Times, Economist and BBC is now in tatters. Kerala is now on throes of an explosive number of Covid cases with a positivity rate staying upwards of 25%. It was expected that Shailaja Teacher as she is referred to, has been dumped an intercine fights between Kannur lobby and rest of Kerala.
If he had his way, Pinarayi Vijayan would have retained half of his present cabinet, but knives are out. The CPM Central leadership is wary of Pinarayi Vijayan and his attempts to build up a personality cult around him in the state. This runs counter to the Marxist Ideology of Party being bigger than the individual. The party mouthpiece in Kerala, Deshabhimani even coined a name for him – ‘Captain’. On his part, Vijayan knows that CPM is now a Big Zero outside Kerala. Likes of Prakash Karat (who hails from Kerala) and Sitaram Yechury (who hails from Andhra) cannot even win a Panchayat Election, on their own. The omnipresent and powerful Central Politbureau has now been reduced to nothing. The once dominant Bengal lobby is now consigned to the dustbin of history.
In such a scenario, Pinarayi Vijayan has decided that he will have his own team and will not be dictated by anyone, including his party seniors. He is now a dictator in the making, mirroring the likes of Manik Sarkar and Jyoti Basu, who had both led the party to an unceremonious demise in Tripura and West Bengal, respectively.
The powerful party leaders in CPM Kerala will not take things lying down and one will not be surprised, if there is a palace coup in the making at the Cliff House.
