Kerala local body polls 2025: With over 100 young candidates, CMP hopes to make a comeback

Almost four decades after the Communist Marxist Party (CMP) was formed following M.V. Raghavan’s expulsion from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], the party is almost a marginal presence in Kerala ‘s political arena, going by the number of elected representatives. But, in the local body polls this time, it has fielded over a hundred mostly young candidates across the State, CMP general secretary C.P. John tells The Hindu.

“It has been almost 20 years since we had a presence in the Assembly, yet we could make our presence felt politically. Around 80% of our candidates are people who have joined us in this period in which we were in political oblivion. As a pure political group with no community support and religious leanings, we are happy at the representation we got from the United Democratic Front (UDF) this time. We have serious complaints with rebels from within the UDF camp in Wayanad district, but due to the increased representation in the other districts, we are satisfied,” says Mr. John.

He is particularly gladdened by the shift of the CPI(M) dissidents to the CMP in Kozhinjampara panchayat in Palakkad district, seven of whom the party has fielded there this time. “It is a pointer that the CMP is not close to the sunset, but that it has scope,” he says.

Resentment within CPI(M)

He says that although the CPI(M) looks strong from the outside, some level of resentment is building up within the party, especially over the functioning of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the way he has handled allegations against his family.

“I will not write off the CPI(M) completely in these elections. They will make their presence felt, but they will be affected by the Sabarimala gold theft allegations and price rise, which has affected the common people. On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is disrupted organisationally. My take on the political situation is that the UDF is up, the BJP is stagnant and the LDF is down,” he says.

He feels that the expulsion of Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil following a serial sexual predation scandal will not affect the UDF in the elections.

“It might have affected if he was not expelled today. The Congress leadership has, by the timing of the expulsion, managed to silence Mr. Mamkootathil’s supporters as they can now claim that they did not show undue haste and waited till the bail was denied. Personally, my opinion is that he should have been expelled a day earlier,” he says.