Thaindian News

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 13 (IANS) The Kerala state conferences of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) will overlap, an indication that the two parties might work closely in the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF), but they don’t always see eye to eye.

While the CPI had announced way back in March that their state conference would be held Feb 7-11, 2012 at Kollam, the CPI-M announced last month that their party conference would be held here Feb 7-10, 2012.

The state conference is held once every three years and serves to demonstrate the strengths of the respective parties.

“It is very unfortunate that both Communist parties are holding their state conference on the same days. We had announced our schedule first,” said CPI leader and former minister C. Divakaran.

“This is happening at a time when there are talks of a possible merger of the two parties,” he lamented.

The CPI-M and CPI have had a stormy relationship in the state.

From 1969 to 1979, the CPI was an ally of the Congress in the state. It was only from the time of the first E.K. Nayanar government in 1980 that the CPI threw in its lot with the CPI-M, be it either in the government or in the opposition.

A major reason for the CPI’s unhappiness stems from the realisation that the maximum publicity would be garnered by CPI-M, which is far ahead of it in size and popularity.

But the CPI-M is unfazed.

“So what if the dates clash. We fixed the dates in a manner in which it suits the leadership of our party,” said a top CPI-M leader, who did not want to be named.