Mariam Alexander Baby, appointed CPM general secretary on Sunday, is the first Christian to helm the party.
One of his biggest challenges will be to halt the BJP’s progress in his home state of Kerala where it has been making strides, often with support from the Church, a senior CPM leader from the southern state told The Telegraph.
“During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, we saw the BJP open its account from Kerala by winning from Thrissur,” the veteran Marxist said, seeking anonymity. “This happened because the Christian Churches have been cosying up to the BJP.”
While Marxists are expected to be atheists, Baby’s Christian origins may help him bring the community over to the Left camp at a time Kerala politics appears divided partly along religious lines.
Baby, known as an intellectual and a good speaker, is the second CPM leader from the Kerala unit after E.M.S. Namboodiripad to helm the party.
His elevation, a day after he turned 71, came after an initial discordant note from the Bengal CPM, which wanted politburo member and former Maharashtra state secretary Ashok Dhawale, 72, as general secretary.
However, the Kerala unit ensured Baby’s appointment. It was former general secretary Prakash Karat who nominated Baby at Saturday’s politburo meeting.
Baby also faces the task of uniting the Opposition bloc, INDIA, ahead of the upcoming state elections, including those in Bengal and Kerala in the summer of 2025.
Baby had for a while nursed a grudge against Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan for his use of the derogatory term “scoundrel” for RSP leader N.K. Premachandran, which cost the Left during the 2014 general election.
With speculation suggesting Pinarayi would again lead the party into next year’s Assembly elections, the onus is now on Baby to help ensure a victory.
Baby might find it difficult to endorse Pinarayi wholeheartedly as the chief minister’s daughter, T. Veena, has been embroiled in a corruption case.
The Centre has approved Veena’s prosecution over allegations that she and her firm, Exalogic Solutions, received ₹2.73 crore from Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited without providing any IT services in return.
Baby belongs to Prakkulam, a coastal village in Kollam district. A dropout from college, where he had enrolled in a BA political science course, he rose through the ranks by dint of his hard work in student politics.
He was the all-India president of the party’s student and youth arms, the SFI and the DYFI. He became a member of the CPM central committee and was a Rajya Sabha MP from 1986 to 1998.
Baby has been a member of the CPM politburo since April 2012.
For a decade, he represented the Kundara Assembly constituency in Kollam district. He also earned plaudits as Kerala education minister.
His family is made up of his wife Betty Baby, a former SFI leader, and their son Ashok Nelson Baby.
