The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M) or CPM) is a communist political party in India that formed as the result of a split in the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1964. [1] It has the status of a "national party" in India and has headed state governments in three of the states in the country.
A chief minister is the head of government of each of the twenty-eight states and three union territories (Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry). In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's de jure head, but de facto executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the state legislative assembly, the state's governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the government. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. Given the confidence of the assembly, the chief minister's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits. [2]
As of March 2020 [update] , nine people from the CPI(M) have held the position of a chief minister — four in Kerala, three in Tripura, and two in West Bengal, out of which only one — Pinarayi Vijayan is incumbent.
| Name | Portrait | Term(s) | Tenure(s) [lower-alpha 1] |
|---|---|---|---|
| E. M. S. Namboodiripad |  | 2 [lower-alpha 2] | 6 March 1967-1 November 1969(2 years, 240 days) |
| E. K. Nayanar |  | 3 | 25 January 1980–20 October 1981 (1 year, 268 days ) 26 March 1987 – 17 June 1991 (4 years, 83 days) 20 May 1996 – 13 May 2001 (4 years, 358 days) |
| V. S. Achuthanandan |  | 1 | 18 May 2006 – 14 May 2011(4 years, 361 days) |
| Pinarayi Vijayan * |  | 2 | 25 May 2016 – Incumbent (7 years, 252 days) |
| Name | Portrait | Term(s) | Tenure(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nripen Chakraborty |  | 2 | 5 January 1978 – 5 February 1988(10 years, 31 days) |
| Dasarath Deb |  | 1 | 10 April 1993 – 11 March 1998(4 years, 335 days) |
| Manik Sarkar |  | 4 | 11 March 1998 – 9 March 2018(19 years, 363 days) |
| Name | Portrait | Term(s) | Tenure(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jyoti Basu |  | 5 | 21 June 1977 – 5 November 2000(23 years, 137 days) |
| Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee |  | 3 | 6 November 2000 – 13 May 2011(10 years, 188 days) |
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the national parties of India. The party was founded through a splitting from CPI in 1964 and it quickly became the dominant fraction.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest communist party in India. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur on 26 December 1925. Currently it has 2 members in Lok Sabha and 2 members in Rajya Sabha. In addition, it has 22 MLAs across 4 states and 1 MLC in Bihar. It has the current ECI status of a state party in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Manipur.
The All India Forward Bloc is a left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party after the independence of India. It has its main stronghold in West Bengal. The party's current Secretary-General is G. Devarajan. Veteran Indian politicians Sarat Chandra Bose and Chitta Basu had been the stalwarts of the party in independent India.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) also known as Left Front (Kerala) is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the state of Kerala, India. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the other being Indian National Congress-led United Democratic Front, each of which has been in power alternately for the last four decades. LDF has won the elections to the State Legislature of Kerala in the years 1980, 1987, 1996, 2006, 2016 and had a historic re-election in 2021 where an incumbent government was re-elected for first time in 40 years. LDF has won 6 out of 10 elections since the formation of the alliance in 1980. The alliance consists of CPI(M), CPI and various smaller parties.
Pinarayi Vijayan is an Indian politician who is the current Chief Minister of Kerala, serving since 25 May 2016. A member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he is the longest-serving secretary of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI(M) (1998–2015). He also served in the government of Kerala as Minister of Electric Power and Co-operatives from 1996 to 1998. Vijayan won a seat in the May 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election as the CPI(M) candidate for Dharmadom constituency and was selected as the leader of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and became the 12th Chief Minister of Kerala. He is the first chief minister from Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full term in office. In 2022, he also became the longest-continuous serving chief minister of Kerala surpassing C. Achutha Menon who had been the first to remain in office for 2364 consecutive days.
The Government of Kerala, also known as the Kerala Government, is the administrative body responsible for governing Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, known as the cabinet.
Communism in India has existed as a social or political ideology as well as a political movement since at least as early as the 1920s. In its early years, communist ideology was harshly suppressed through legal prohibitions and criminal prosecutions. Eventually, communist parties became ensconced in national party politics, sprouting several political offshoots.
The Left Front is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was formed in January 1977, the founding parties being the Communist Party of India (Marxist), All India Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Marxist Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India and the Biplabi Bangla Congress. Other parties joined in later years, most notably the Communist Party of India.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1982. The Left Front, which had won the 1977 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, emerged victoriously. The Indian National Congress emerged as the main opposition party in the state, as the Janata Party was disintegrating.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1991. The election took place simultaneously with the 1991 Indian general election. The term of the assembly elected in 1987 lasted until February 1992, but the West Bengal government asked the Election Commission of India to arrange the election at an earlier date.
The Left Front is a political alliance in the Indian state of Tripura. The Left Front governed Tripura 1978–1988, and again from 1993 to 2018. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is the dominant party in the coalition. The other members of the Left Front are the Communist Party of India, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and the All India Forward Bloc.
Sudhindranath Kumar was an Indian politician, belonging to the Revolutionary Communist Party of India. He served as general secretary of the party 1960–1984, represented Howrah Central constituency in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and served as Food Minister of the state in 1969 and 1977–1982.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1971. The assembly election was held alongside the 1971 Indian general election.
The 2018 Tripura Legislative Assembly election was held on 18 February for 59 of the state's 60 constituencies. The counting of votes took place on 3 March 2018. With 43.59% of the vote, the BJP secured a majority of seats (36) and subsequently formed the government with Biplab Kumar Deb as Chief Minister. The former governing Left Front alliance while receiving 44.35% of the vote secured only 16 seats.
Elections were held in Indian state of West Bengal in February 1969 to elect 280 members to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. United Front formed the government with Ajoy Mukherjee as the Chief Minister. United Front won a landslide 214 seats and 49.7% of the votes.
In 1964, a major split occurred in the Communist Party of India. The split was the culmination of decades of tensions and factional infighting. When India became independent in 1947, differences arose of how to adapt to the new situation. As relations between the Nehru government and the Soviet Union improved, a faction that sought cooperation with the dominant Indian National Congress emerged within CPI. This tendency was led by S.A. Dange, whose role in the party hierarchy became increasingly controversial. When the Sino-Indian War broke out in 1962 Dange's opponents within CPI were jailed, but when they were released they sought to challenge his leadership. In 1964 the party was finally divided into two, with the left faction forming the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The split had a lot of regional variations. It also impacted other organizations, such as trade union and peasant movements. The split has been studied extensively by scholars, who have sought to analyze the various domestic and international factors involved.
