Voices of dissent emerge a day after CPI(M)’s show of unity in Kerala

Voices of dissent emerge within CPI(M) after State conference, highlighting leadership disputes and concerns over party unity.

Voices of dissent and protest surfaced a day after the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] put up a united face at the conclusion of its State conference in Kollam on Sunday (March 9, 2025).

A. Padmakumar, the party’s Pathanamthitta district secretariat member and former MLA, publicly resented that despite his “52 years of service”, he was “passed over” at the conference for a seat in the State committee. 

He took strong exception that the conference elevated Health Minister Veena George, with barely nine years of experience in the party, as a permanent invitee to the State committee while lauding her “administrative acumen”. 

Mr. Padamakumar told reporters in Pathanamthitta that the party had “not followed the principle” of inducting individuals into higher committees based on organisational contributions. He reaffirmed his faith in the CPI(M).

Mr. Padmakumar caused a media stir on Sunday by leaving the conference venue early and expressing his disappointment in a now-deleted ‘cheating, betrayal and disrespect’ Facebook post. 

In Kannur, CPI(M) State committee member P. Jayarajan’s son, Jain Raj, appeared to take an oblique dig at his father’s “non-inclusion” in the State secretariat by reposting an old Facebook post by party State secretariat member M. Swaraj which said: “Did you expect a different fate in present-day India?”. 

Mr. Jayarajan, a CPI(M) State committee member for the past 27 years, refused to comment when contacted by The Hindu.