New Delhi, May 13 The struggle for space within the Left domain is not without antecedents, and beyond Kerala, where, after the recent poll defeat of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), tensions between the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist -- or CPI-M -- surfaced publicly over the position of Deputy Leader of Opposition in State Assembly.
The Communists could attain limited power in India, though enjoying periods of influence intermittently.
One such phase was the first United Progressive Alliance government (UPA) led by the former Prime Minister late Manmohan Singh.
A later clash over India's nuclear pact with the US saw the Left withdraw support to the subsequent UPA regime.
For long, the CPI-M was considered the "big brother" within the Left platform.
CPI leaders and other constituents claim in private about "dadagiri" in Left Front meetings in West Bengal and Tripura, and the LDF in Kerala.
Apart from the CPI, other constituents like the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), and the Forward Bloc, have been raising the issue time and again, especially when the alliance used to be a significant force, mainly in three states.
The 2020 Bihar Assembly results did rejuvenate the Communists, when contesting as part of the Opposition bloc of Mahagathbandhan, they scored their best results in recent times in the state.
The CPI-M then won half the four seats it contested, the CPI managed two out of six, while the biggest gain was pulled off by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation – or CPI(ML)L -- whose 12 candidates out of 19 claimed victories.
A euphoric CPI(ML)L General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya asked the Left Front in West Bengal to join hands with the then ruling Trinamool Congress to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from gaining grounds in the state.
Incidentally, Bhattacharya's party was not part of the Left Front alliance in West Bengal during the 2021 Assembly election.
Highlighting the aspect, Left Front Chairman Biman Bose asked the CPI(ML)L leader to not advise them.
Even as the Left was wiped out of the poll result-board in West Bengal, it was reduced to an insignificant single digit of three in the subsequent Bihar Assembly election of 2025.
However, the Left Front did allot some seats to the CPI(ML)L in the 2026 West Bengal poll, though it did not win any, and the CPI-M won one.
Historically, the 1964 CPI–CPI(M) split created institutional fault-lines that have produced periodic acrimony even in alliance.
Formal attempts at rapprochement have faltered because of apparent theoretical contradictions, organisational interests, and tactical differences.
Communist alignments created pro‑Soviet and pro‑China rifts inside India's Leftists, and those international divisions crystallised into contrasting domestic strategies and loyalties.
Beginning late 1960s, there were further splits with some radicals turning to Mao's doctrine and launching a war on the state, as they called it.
It led to the emergence of Naxal and Maoist groups adopting armed and extra‑Parliamentary strategies, further fragmenting the Left.
Incidentally, the CPI(ML)L sympathises with the Naxal movement, but has since denounced violence, taking to Parliamentary democracy.
The CPI and CPI(M), meanwhile, despite organisational separation, continued to coordinate electorally -- especially in states like Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura.
At times, there were talks of merger following consecutive electoral setbacks nationally.
While a section proposed reunification talks, another cautioned that merger was not immediately feasible.
Now, the CPI's public push for the Deputy Opposition post in Kerala is both a tactical demand and a signal of deeper dissatisfaction with CPI(M) leadership.
How the LDF resolves this will shape their recovery strategy in Kerala.
Through the Red divide looms a dilemma on power-sharing vs unity, public airing of grievances vs closed-door reconciliation for comrades fighting a desperate battle for survival.
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