The first challenge before the new General Secretary is to restore the old glory and make the party relevant. Yechury has tried to raise the voice in the Rajya Sabha this past one year. For this the CPI-M has to shed its dogmatism and adopt pragmatic political changes according to the needs. Will he be able to achieve this?

The second challenge is to unite the party, which is full of factionalism. This is more so in the Kerala unit where the two groups led by former chief minister Achudanadam and his rival Vijayan have been at logger heads for years. As the new party chief, Yechury has an onerous task to bring the two warring factions together and forge unity between the two groups. Achudanandam has not been included in the polit buro while Vijayan has found a place. Does he have a plan to unite the party?

The third is to build the organization, which has been shrinking fast. Does he have any out of the box thinking in this regard? He faces the onerous task of attracting the younger generation whose aspirations are different and restore the earlier pan -India character of the party. The party has to shed its old mindset and walk in step with the rest of the world and shed some of its ideas like anti imperialism, which are not relevant any more. Even China and Russia are changing fast. With the party deciding to conduct an organizational plenum before the year-end, which is being attempted after more than three decades, his challenge is big.

The fourth is to work for the left front unity. It is important to forge the left unity to remain relevant. The four left parties have not even been fighting together in the elections. There has been talk of the merger of the CPI and the CPI-M. Yechury also talked about it soon after he took over although he did not give any time frame for this. He told reporters soon after he took over, “Merger is still on cards. But, the first issue is to strengthen our party, based on which, work for the unity of Left forces is to be undertaken, and again based on which mobilizing Left and democratic forces together will be done. 'For this the two parties should iron out their differences on various issues.

The fifth is to unite the opposition. The secular / communal plank has not worked against the BJP. No third front can ever become a reality unless the left parties support it. Yechury has an advantage as he is known as a pragmatic and flexible leader in tune with the modern world. He has friends across the political spectrum and excellent media support. He has proved his negotiating skills earlier. If the newly merged Janata Parivar clicks in Bihar and U.P, his task will become easier to forge the opposition unity. As for the Congress, he is known to have excellent equation with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Therefore he can play a crucial role in brining about opposition unity if he went about the right way. However, the 21st Party Congress document is critical of the Congress role and the position has been of no cooperation with the Congress. The efforts should be to keep the anti-BJP votes in tact.

Above all the acid test is to bring West Bengal back to the CPI-M fold.

Kerala also will go to polls simultaneously. The good news form Kerala is that the party membership has increased unlike West Bengal, which has registered a drop of over 40,000. Although Trinamool is facing a tough time in West Bengal after the Saradha chit fund scam the CPI-M has not been able to recover the lost ground so far. Added to the worries is the spread of the BJP, which is making inroads in West Bengal. The sagging morale of the CPI-M worker needs to be lifted.

Yechury has to lead the party both in Parliament and also on the street to fight the right wing elements if he wants to succeed. The Labour Party in the U.K. changed itself into a New Labour party to survive. Perhaps Yechury should attempt some such thing to woo the growing number of new voters. But the challenge for him will come from within the party, which is a status quo-ist. Will he be allowed to succeed? (IPA Service)