Thiruvananthapuram: The congresses of the CPM and the CPI, slated for April and May next year, respectively, may be postponed and held after the Assembly elections in Kerala in 2021.
The two parties are considering postponing the conferences of lower and grassroots-level organisations that were to be held in the coming months in the run-up to the congresses next year.
The central committee meeting of the CPM in July and the national executive committee meeting of the CPI will take an official decision on holding the congresses.
There were hints that the party congresses would have to be postponed given that the Assembly elections in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Assam are scheduled to be held from the beginning of next year.
The two parties have earlier, too, postponed the state conferences and the congresses in an election year.
This year, given the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant restrictions, the lower-and grassroots-level conferences will be of no practical use, the parties feel.
The restrictions are not applicable to branch-level meetings with not more than 15 members. But, there could be a ban on conferences at the local and above levels, which usually have participation of more than 50 people.
The state and central leadership of the CPM has been encouraging online meetings of party committees. However, organising an online conference is not on the party’s agenda.
Similarly, while the CPI has held two meetings of the central secretariat online twice, the Kerala unit is not keen on entering the digital era for meetings and conferences.
Usually, the local and state-level conferences of the two parties are held between July and September and the preparations start around this time.
The two parties elect new leadership from the branch to the national-level by holding the conferences every three years.
With the local body elections in Kerala scheduled for October, the two parties point out that they will not be able to focus on the intra-party conferences planned just before the polls.
The two parties are now planning to hold the lower-level conferences after the Kerala Assembly elections in May next year, followed by the Congress either towards the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022.
Existing committees and secretaries are, therefore, likely to get an extended term of six months to one year.
