Opinion | Has Pinarayi Vijayan Been Left All Alone?

If there is one edifice that is symbolic of Pinarayi Vijayan's two terms as Kerala Chief Minister, it would be the brand new AKG Centre, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) headquarters, in Kerala. Located next to its old base, the spanking new complex touching Thiruvananthapuram's skyline resembles a state-of-the-art hotel rather than an office representing the working class. Such an office would not be a reality today had Vijayan not dared to dream when he first took over as state secretary of the party.

Plain Beginnings

Vijayan was born at Pinarayi, in Kannur, not far from Parappuram, where the undivided Communist Party took birth in Kerala. For many, like Vijayan, growing up in the post-independence Kannur, Communism offered a respite from abject poverty and a change of status, where one would be treated as an equal with those who came from better means. Vijayan worked as a beedi roller before enrolling in Thalassery's Brennen College, and his leadership qualities and good fortune ensured that he would swiftly rise.

Vijayan's rise in hierarchy seemed almost pre-destined, as he got to the party's Kannur district committee in 1968 on the panel of strongman MV Raghavan, who would remain a major influence on Vijayan throughout his political career. Vijayan became an MLA in 1970, and Pattiam Gopalan's untimely death in 1978 elevated him to the state committee. Ironically, it was the ouster of MV Raghavan in 1986 that catapulted him to the leadership of the party in Kannur overnight, as district secretary.

What Vijayan may have lacked in ideological rigour, he made up for in practical wisdom. It would not be off the mark to say that Marxist regimentation was Vijayan's cover to mask his revisionist impulses. In the CPI-M, power flows from Kannur, its strongest unit, across the country. Vijayan was thrust into state leadership after Chadayan Govindan's demise in 1998 at the height of factionalism, with VS Achuthanandan at one end, and the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) at the other.

'State Secretary' Vijayan

As state secretary, Vijayan consolidated his position and turned against Achuthanandan, who had annihilated the CITU wing by then. The power struggle between Vijayan and Achuthanandan reached a flashpoint in 2005 at the CPI-M Malappuram state conference, where the two leaders vied for the party's control. Vijayan trumped Achuthanandan by defeating his panel. Many Achuthanandan loyalists switched over to Vijayan's camp overnight. From then on, Vijayan had the party fully under his grasp.

Vijayan's efforts to deny a ticket to Achuthanandan in the 2006 Assembly election were eventually vetoed by the CPI-M Politburo. After winning the election and taking over as Chief Minister, Achuthanandan never had full control of his government as the home department was held by Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Vijayan's lieutenant and closest aide. The party stood in the way of even Achuthanandan's executive decisions, effectively turning the Chief Minister into a lame duck. Vijayan's legacy as state secretary also included shoring up the CPI-M's material assets and starting a party-backed television channel network, when 24/7 news was still at a nascent stage in Kerala.

The decade-long power struggle came to a culmination when Vijayan stepped down as state secretary after five terms in 2015, by which time Achuthanandan had run out of steam due to his advanced age. Vijayan may have lorded over the party in Kerala since 1998, but he still wasn't a mass leader like Achuthanandan. Naturally, there were doubts about projecting Vijayan as the Left face in 2016. With Sitaram Yechury taking over as CPI-M general secretary from Prakash Karat, Achuthanandan was persuaded to lead the campaign in 2016, even if only to make way for Vijayan after the victory.

'Chief Minister' Vijayan

Achuthanandan may have gracefully stepped aside after being used as a mascot for the Left in 2016, but Vijayan still had to contend with several veterans in his cabinet. Vijayan wanted total subordination, which was resented by the likes of G Sudhakaran and Thomas Isaac. In 2019, G Sudhakaran protested Vijayan's attempts to empower secretaries and make ministers beholden to the bureaucracy. It was in this backdrop, along with the favourable political climate post Covid-19, that Vijayan came up with a two-term clause for MLAs, resulting in the sidelining of a generation of Marxist leaders.

Vijayan's second term as Chief Minister began by denying cabinet positions to sitting ministers like KK Shailaja, who did not lose out on a ticket as part of the 'term clause'. Vijayan coveted absolute control, and he obtained that by turning ministers into mere rubber stamps, centralising decision-making and running the show through the bureaucrats and his extra-legal advisers. He made sweeping changes to the long-held convention of the Chief Minister meeting the press every Wednesday and cutting off access to the public by eliminating the visitors' slot in the Kerala Secretariat altogether. Vijayan also attempted to regulate the flow of information by controlling access for the press.

Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's Demise

Despite cutting himself off from the public and marking his presence only at public events and stage-managed press conferences, it was the man-management of state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that kept Vijayan afloat. Balakrishnan was integral to Vijayan's success as he dealt with disgruntled comrades behind the scenes, even as he fielded the press in public. It was following Balakrishnan's demise in 2022 that Vijayan slowly began to lose grip on the narrative, with his replacement, MV Govindan, failing to rise to the occasion.

Balakrishnan's demise also exacerbated the inner party wranglings and brought things out in the open. The unprecedented rebellion in the CPI-M across Kerala has led to several veterans, such as G Sudhakaran, TK Govindan, P Kunhikrishnan, PK Sasi, Aisha Potti and S Rajendran, contesting as rival party nominees in the forthcoming election. Balakrishnan's demise also brought to the fore the fact that the CPI-M had no line of succession after Vijayan.

'Nepotist' Vijayan

By empowering first-time MLA PA Mohammed Riyas with two critical portfolios such as Public Works Department and Tourism (with massive budget outlays), Vijayan was effectively grooming his son-in-law to take over as his successor. However, Riyas has been bogged down by Left turncoat PV Anvar's energetic campaign in his constituency of Beypore, a Marxist stronghold, where he finds himself on a sticky wicket.

Vijayan's nepotist impulses and crony-capitalist tendencies have been in the news for years, when veteran 'Berlin' Kunhanandan Nair wrote in his memoir about Vijayan seeking admission for his daughter, Veena, in a private university outside Kerala through the good offices of his industrialist friends. This was in conjunction with Vijayan leading the CPI-M's campaign in Kerala against the AK Antony-led government's decision to grant self-financing colleges, a mark of his hypocrisy.

The same Veena Vijayan was caught with her hand in the till by the Income Tax department in 2024 for securing a deal with a company to pay her monthly instalments, without rendering any services in return.

In sum, for Vijayan, who dared to dream of turning the CPI-M into a corporate enterprise, individual fortunes mattered as much.

Vijayan's Makeover

It was in 2021 that Vijayan first led an Assembly election from the front. That campaign saw Vijayan getting repackaged as 'Captain' Vijayan, as someone who could navigate Kerala through the choppy seas post-Covid. Come 2026, Vijayan has been given another makeover, as the 'development man'. Shortly after the loss in the local body polls held in December, the CPI-M undertook a massive PR blitzkrieg. Billboards with a beaming Vijayan began lining up the National Highway across Kerala with the Left catchphrase, "Who else, but the LDF?"

Meanwhile, Vijayan turned over a new leaf with the media, with which he had always shared a difficult relationship. By giving interviews left, right and centre, ranging from pro-government outlets to the ones that are editorially opposed to him, Vijayan had done the bidding of his advisors. And by broadening his media outreach to accommodate YouTubers and influencers, Vijayan was even game to reach out to first-time voters. While CPI-M general secretary MA Baby and Vijayan himself would not confirm if he shall continue as Chief Minister if he receives a favourable mandate, state secretary MV Govindan let the cat out of the bag in an interview with a Malayalam news channel.

The Blue Jackal

With the political climate no longer as favourable as in 2021, and a two-term anti-incumbency to contend with, the CM has been carrying the Left's campaign entirely on his shoulders, with none to share the burden with. The carefully constructed image of Vijayan as a leader in full control, however, was shattered in a matter of seconds at a public event in Pathanamthitta.

While delivering a speech, Vijayan received a question from the audience (the man was later identified as a CPI-M cadre), to which he immediately snapped and responded tersely, "Go and ask the question at home", in a rude tone. This was reminiscent of the story of the blue Jackal in Panchatantara, with Vijayan's natural instincts kicking in to smash the PR in one fell swoop. This was also followed by another incident in Kollam when Vijayan lost his cool and displayed intemperate behaviour with the press.

Losing the Narrative

With Vijayan being its face, such faux pas have led to the Left ceding the battle of narratives to the Congress. If Vijayan was setting the narrative and the Congress was in a perpetual catch-up mode in 2021, it's quite a role reversal this time around, leaving the octogenarian CM huffing and puffing.

Were Vijayan to lose, the Left is unlikely to be completely blown away in Kerala like West Bengal, as many people assume, provided it can course-correct and offer an alternate vision. However, Vijayan's enduring legacy will be that of a leader whose right-wing deviancy was camouflaged in regimentation, and the strongman who brooked no challenge, replacing Marxist-Leninist principles with his own brand of 'Pinarayism'.

(Anand Kochukudy is a senior journalist and columnist)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author