Communist Party of India (Maxist): March 2009

CPI(M) launches website for 2009 Lok Sabha polls
23 March, 2009Communist Party of India (Marxist), which was once bitterly opposed to computerisation in the country on the plea that it would result in job losses, has now launched Vote.CPIM.org, an online platform to attract the youth and support the party’s campaign for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. “Around 54 per cent of India’s population is below 25 years and this segment is increasingly using the cyberspace,” CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and MP (Member of Parliament) Sitaram Yechury, said, while launching the site. “Our objective is to reach out to this segment.” But, how will the party which had opposed computerisation of banks in the early 1980s bat for internet usage now? “We never opposed the technology. We only opposed job losses due to computerisation,” Sitaram Yechury said, adding that adapting to newer technologies which can be utilised for the welfare of the people was an integral part of Communism

Photographs of Central C
Photos Taken During the 18th Congress ommittee Members

The CPI(M) was formed at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India held in Calcutta from October 31 to November 7, 1964. The CPI(M) was born in the struggle against revisionism and sectarianism in the communist movement at the international and national level, in order to defend the scientific and revolutionary tenets of Marxism-Leninism and its appropriate application in the concrete Indian conditions. The CPI(M) combines the fine heritage of the anti-imperialist struggle and the revolutionary legacy of the undivided Communist Party which was founded in 1920. Over the years, the Party has emerged as the foremost Left force in the country.
The CPI(M) has grown steadily since its formation in 1964. The membership of the Party, which was 118,683 at the time of its formation, has grown to 9,76,622 in 2007. The Party has sought to independently apply Marxism-Leninism to Indian conditions and to work out the strategy and tactics for a people's democratic revolution, which can transform the lives of the Indian people. The CPI(M) is engaged in bringing about this basic transformation by carrying out a programme to end imperialist, big bourgeois and landlord exploitation. The CPI(M) as the leading Left party is committed to build a Left and democratic front which can present a real alternative to the existing bourgeois-landlord policies.
In the last few elections, contesting on an average 15 percent of the total seats, the CPI(M) has been getting around 6 percent of the votes. (India follows the “first past the post” system and not proportional representation) In the 2004 elections to the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament) the CPI(M) won 44 seats adding 11 more to its earlier tally of 33 in the 1999 elections. This is the highest ever won by the Party. The Lower House of Parliament has a strength of 543. The combined Left has a strength of 61. In the position of parties, the CPI(M) is the third group in the Parliament. In the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) the CPI(M) has 14 members.
The CPI(M) is heading three state governments. The Left Front government headed by the CPI(M) has been uninterruptedly in power in West Bengal since 1977. In Kerala, it has been in and out of office. Currently, the Left Democratic Front headed by the CPI(M) is in office. In Tripura, the CPI(M) was first elected to office in 1977. Though it lost the subsequent elections due to largescale rigging, in all elections since 1987 it has been voted to office. Though uneven, the CPI(M) has representation in twelve state legislative assemblies.

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