Visakhapatnam, April 18: A few indications of the mood in the CPM party congress emerged this evening, a day before the triennial conclave elects a successor to outgoing general secretary Prakash Karat on its last day.
One, party insiders suggested the delegates' "anger" at the current leadership's failures could favour frontrunner Sitaram Yechury, 62, who has emerged as a "symbol of hope" for the party by taking the lead in criticising Karat.
Two, Yechury's main rival S. Ramachandran Pillai, seen as a Karat nominee, has been left out of the speakers' list for the conclave-concluding rally where the party traditionally showcases its new chief.
Three, some party leaders said that Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar had an outside chance of emerging as a compromise candidate if the Karat camp, backed by the powerful Kerala lobby, held out successfully against Yechury.
Under a process that starts tomorrow, the 749 delegates to the six-day conclave in Visakhapatnam will elect a new central committee of 80-90 members, which will then elect a new politburo of about 15 members and one of them as the new general secretary.
However, the party's traditions of "democratic centralism" mean that the outgoing politburo proposes a single name that the central committee rubberstamps. The Karat lobby is still very strong in the politburo.
Party veterans, though, underlined that the current politburo and the new central committee would find it difficult to ignore the delegates' sentiments.
In a party known for its secretiveness, all the delegates The Telegraph could speak to confirmed that the current leadership had come under intense fire at the conclave.
"Most of the delegates were scathing in their criticism of the leadership," a central committee member said.
Besides, the party would find it hard to justify the selection of Pillai, who is 77, at a time it is desperate to woo the support of the youth.
Pillai, who briefed the media today, neither confirmed nor denied his candidature, deflecting questions with: "All these are wild speculations."
But he seemed to drop a hint when asked why his name was missing from the list of speakers for the rally scheduled at the end of the conclave tomorrow.
"Who will address the rally was collectively decided by the party," Pillai said.
A new general secretary is traditionally the chief speaker at the rally. "The absence of Pillai's name is a big indicator that he is not going to become the general secretary," a party leader said.
The names of the speakers are on posters plastered all over Visakhapatnam. Apart from Andhra state secretary B.V. Raghavulu, who will preside over the rally, the speakers will be Karat, Yechury, Brinda Karat and Sarkar in that order.
Sarkar could emerge as a dark horse only if the politburo is deeply divided over Yechury and the Karat lobby can successfully argue that unity is more important than expansion, sources suggested.
But the divisions in the Kerala unit too were highlighted this morning when former chief minister V.S. Achutanandan pointedly wished "all success" to Yechury, with the media watching, near the gates of the Daspalla Hotel where they are staying.
VS, as he is known in Kerala, has been involved in a running feud with the state unit.
Asked why VS was wishing success to Yechury and not to a fellow Kerala comrade like him, Pillai said: "I have no idea about it. Normally we don't do that (voice a personal wish about a contestant's success) in our party."
Yechury has blamed Karat's policies for the party's slide from a "historical high to a historical low" during his 10 years at the helm. The party had 43 Lok Sabha members when Karat took over; now it has just nine and is out of power in Bengal and Kerala.
In the run-up to the party congress, Yechury had placed an alternative draft report before the central committee, where it has found large support.
"The delegates are venting sentiments similar to those Yechury had flagged in his alternative draft," a delegate from Bengal said.
