Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) is a Marxist‑Leninist political party that has been a principal architect of left‑wing politics in post‑independence India. Formed on 7 November 1964 after a split from the older Communist Party of India, it quickly distinguished itself through a disciplined cadre structure, a commitment to parliamentary democracy, and a strategy of building mass movements around land reform, workers’ rights, and anti‑imperialist solidarity. Its longevity—over six decades—and its record of governing three Indian states make it the oldest continuously operating communist party in the world that has exercised executive power in a democratic setting. ## Origins and Historical Background The 1964 split was precipitated by ideological disagreements over the Soviet–Chinese rift and the CPI’s stance on the Indo‑Pakistani wars of 1962 and 1965. The founding congress, held in Calcutta, elected E. M. S. Namboodiripad—who had served as Kerala’s first chief minister in 1957—as the party’s first general secretary. Early CPI (M) leaders such as A. K. Gopalan, P. Ramamurthi, and Jyoti Basu helped embed the party in trade‑union halls and peasant associations, notably the All India Kisan Sabha and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). By 1970 the party had established a presence in 12 states, fielding candidates in the 1971 Lok Sabha election and winning 16 seats, a modest but symbolically important breakthrough. ## Governance and Policy Legacy CPI (M) first attained state‑level executive power in Kerala in 1967, forming a coalition government that introduced the Land Reform Ordinance of 1969, which capped landholdings at 15 acres and redistributed surplus land to tenant farmers. The party returned to power in Kerala in 1977, 1980, 1987, 1996, 2006, and 2016, each tenure marked by high literacy rates—Kerala’s adult literacy rose from 59 % in 1971 to 96 % by 2011—and pioneering health indicators, such as a maternal mortality ratio of 57 per 100 000 live births in 2015, well below the national average. In West Bengal, the Left Front, led by CPI (M), governed from 1977 to 2011, implementing Operation Barga (1978) that recorded 1.1 million share‑croppers and introduced Panchayati Raj institutions that empowered over 3 million village councils. Tripura’s CPI (M) administration (1993‑2018) achieved a 96 % primary school enrollment rate and a per‑capita income growth of 6 % annually between 2000 and 2015. ## Electoral Trajectory and Current Status In the 2019 Lok Sabha election CPI (M) secured 16 seats, a decline from its 2004 high of 43 seats but still the largest single left‑wing representation in the lower house. The party holds two seats in the Rajya Sabha as of 2024, occupied by S. R. Patil (Maharashtra) and D. K. Mohan (Kerala). At the state level, CPI (M) leads the Left Democratic Front in Kerala with 20 of the 140 assembly seats (2021) and heads the Left Front in Tripura with 13 of 60 seats (2023). In West Bengal, the party remains a junior partner in the Secular Democratic Alliance, contesting 30 of the 42 seats allocated to the alliance in the 2026 assembly election. Membership figures released by the party in 2022 listed 1.2 million registered cadres, of which 250 000 are active volunteers in trade‑union and peasant fronts. ## Ideological Position and International Links CPI (M) adheres to a Marxist‑Leninist programme that emphasizes democratic centralism, the overthrow of capitalist exploitation, and the construction of a socialist economy through peaceful parliamentary means. The party’s 23‑point election manifesto for 2024 called for a minimum wage of ₹ 400 per day, a 30 % increase in public health expenditure, and the nationalisation of key natural‑resource sectors. Internationally, CPI (M) participates in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) and maintains fraternal ties with the Communist Party of China, the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the Workers’ Party of Korea, while publicly critiquing the policies of the Russian Federation after 2022. ## Significance in Indian Politics CPI (M)’s significance lies in its ability to translate Marxist theory into concrete governance, shaping land‑ownership patterns, literacy drives, and health infrastructure across three states. Its disciplined cadre network has acted as a counterweight to both right‑wing Hindu nationalism and centrist neoliberalism, often tipping the balance in coalition governments at the centre, such as the