‘We must admit the mistake committed; CPM leadership bears accountability for party's collapse’

KANNUR: Payyannur MLA V Kunjikrishnan and Taliparamba MLA T K Govindan have strongly criticized the CPM state leadership. Addressing a press meet, the MLAs accused the party of evading responsibility for the party’s electoral setbacks by placing the blame on district committees.

‘None of the discussions and criticisms raised by grassroots party units were reflected in the state committee’s review. That is clear from the press meet convened by party state secretary M V Govindan. Issues such as the stand taken by the state secretary, the selection procedures of wrong candidates, and incidents that alienated secular-minded voters were widely discussed within the party but were ignored in the review report. Out of the 27 candidates, 24 were defeated. Many of them were candidates who had not been approved by the party’s area or district committees.

The state leadership is now claiming that the defeats in Taliparamba and Payyannur were caused by the district committee. This is misleading and amounts to deceiving party workers and the public. How can people trust that the leadership will correct its mistakes if it refuses to acknowledge them? The leadership itself is responsible for the party’s decline,’ said Govindan.

V Kunjikrishnan also questioned the state leadership’s accountability. “If the leadership admits that mistakes were committed, doesn’t it also have a responsibility to explain what those mistakes were? Why was there a refusal to change the candidate despite repeated demands? CPM is becoming a party that does not value inner-party democracy. What we are witnessing today is a drift towards authoritarianism,’ he said.