Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad, popularly known as 'E.M.S. Namboodiripad' or simply by his initials 'E. M. S.', was an Indian communist politician and theorist, who served as the first Chief Minister of Kerala in 1957–1959 and then again in 1967–1969. As a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI), he became the first non-Congress Chief Minister in the Indian republic. In 1964, he led a faction of the CPI that broke away to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) 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 the Communist Party of India in 1964 and it quickly became the dominant faction.
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.
Harkishan Singh Surjeet was an Indian Communist politician from Punjab, who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 1992 to 2005 and was a member of the party's Polit Bureau from 1964 to 2008.
Jyoti Basu was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the member of Politburo of the party since its formation in 1964 till 2008. He was also the member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly 11 times. In his political career, spanning over seven decades, he was noted to have been the India's longest serving chief minister in an elected democracy, at the time of his resignation. He declined the post of Prime Minister after the 1996 Indian general election after the CPM refused to let him head a multi-party coalition as would not be able to implement Marxist programs and relinquished the prime ministership to Deve Gowda.
Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan, popularly known by his initials V. S., is an Indian politician who was the Chief Minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011. At 82, he was the oldest person to have assumed the office. He is affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He served as the chairman of Administrative reforms in Kerala with state cabinet rank from 2016 to 2021. He has served as Leader of the Opposition for 15 years which makes him the longest serving Leader of the Opposition in Kerala Legislative Assembly.
Prakash Karat is an Indian Communist politician. He was the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 2005 to 2015.
Pinarayi Vijayan is an Indian politician who serves as the Chief Minister of Kerala 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 has also served as Minister of Electric Power and Co-operatives during the third E. K. Nayanar ministry. Vijayan won a seat in the May 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election and 2021 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.
Sitaram Yechury was an Indian Marxist politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who was a member of the Politburo of the CPI(M) since 1992. Previously, he was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, West Bengal, from 2005 to 2017.
Madhukar Kashinath Pandhe was a Politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 2002 to 2011 and was also the General Secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), one of the largest trade unions in India.
Govindaswamy Karuppiah Moopanar, known as G. K. Moopanar, was a Tamil Nadu Congress Committee leader, parliamentarian, and social worker. He served as Member of the Rajya Sabha, president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee and general secretary of All India Congress Committee. from 1980 to 1988. Moopanar was a close associate of Congress leader and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, K. Kamaraj.
Biman Bose is an Indian politician who was once state Secretary of the West Bengal Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was later succeeded by his trusted aide, Surya Kanta Mishra, although he remained a Politburo member of the party. He is also Chairman of the Left Front committee of West Bengal.
People's Democracy is the English weekly newspaper of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Prakash Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member is the editor of the newspaper. The journal has six editions from New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Agartala, and Kochi.
Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri was an Indian politician. He was the oldest surviving member of the founding Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Surjya Kanta Mishra is an Indian politician, belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He served as Minister of Health and Minister in-charge of Land & Land Reforms, Panchayats & Rural Development in the Left Front governments of West Bengal and was the Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), West Bengal State Committee between 2015 and 2022.
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 Biplobi Bangla Congress. Other parties joined in later years, most notably the Communist Party of India.
The UPA-Left Coordination Committee was a platform dedicated to coordinate policy discussions between the Indian National Congress and the parliamentary left-wing parties during the UPA I cabinet governing India 2004–2009. During this period the parliamentary left parties were providing outside support to the government, without being part of the governing coalition as such.
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.
Communists were actively involved in Indian independence movement through multiple series of protests, strikes and other activities. It was a part of revolutionary movement for Indian independence. Their main thrust was on organising peasants and working classes across India against the British and Indian capitalists and landlords.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) 
