CPI-M, a revolutionary history

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has a strong presence in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, emerged out of a split from the Communist Party of India in 1964.

The party has representation in the legislatures or more than ten states.

The party emerged out of a division within the Communist Party of India (CPI), which had led armed rebellions in Telangana, Tripura and Kerala. The party 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.

In the 1967 Lok Sabha elections CPI(M) nominated 59 candidates. In total 19 of them were elected. In the state legistative elections held simultaneously, the CPI(M) emerged as a major party in Kerala and West Bengal.

In 1967 a peasant uprising broke out in Naxalbari, in northern West Bengal. The insurgency was led by hardline district-level CPI(M) leaders Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal. The hardliners within CPI(M) saw the Naxalbari uprising as the spark that would ignite the Indian revolution. The Naxalbari movement was violently repressed by the West Bengal government, of which CPI(M) was a major partner.

The CPI(M) is the major party in the Left Front, which is in power in West Bengal. The parties in the front are CPI, the All India Forward bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party.

The Left Front provided outside support to the Manmohan Singh Led UPA Government at the centre, before pulling out on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue.

The CPI (M) has 42 seats in the Lok Sabha and 15 in the Rajya Sabha.

Apart from supporting the UPA, the closest the CPI(M) came close to forming government was in 1996, when Jyoti Basu emerged as the consensus leader of the United Front for the post of Prime Minister. However, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau decided not to participate in the government, a decision that Jyoti Basu later termed a historic blunder.



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