Stung by the Left parties' drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls in Kerala and West Bengal, Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Saturday said his party was critically analysing the reasons for it.
The CPI-M leader was the chief minister of the state from 2000 to 2011.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday alleged that Kerala under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has shown tolerance towards radical elements and radicalisation.
He also claimed that the people were asking are all the jobs under Kerala government reserved for cadres and the university jobs for powerful people in Thiruvananthapuram.
Shabana Azmi said no one but the Central Board of Film Certification has the right to decide whether or not a film should release.
Veteran Communist leader and former Chief Minister of Kerala, V S Achuthanandan turned 98 on Wednesday.
A small-scale businessman was found dead at his house in Kottayam in Kerala, following which the family members raised grave charges against a Karnataka-based private bank on Tuesday.
Even as the dust settles on one election, glory in Thiruvananthapuram has come with a new question on the horizon: Who will be UDF's candidate in the next Lok Sabha election given Shashi Tharoor has said 2024 would be his last? It isn't a vacancy that can be easily filled, points out Shyam G Menon.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist met in Vijayawada last week to confront the many challenges facing the party, especially in its strongholds, Bengal and Kerala. What did the meeting achieve? Can the CPI-M emerge from the crisis it finds itself in?
'Whatever the BJP tries to do, they will not be able to make a big mark in Kerala.'
Just eight months after its good showing in the Lok Sabha polls, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) seems to be running out of steam with internal bickering and conflicting ambitions resulting in diminishing electoral returns that have once again put the Bharatiya Janata Party in the driver's seat in national politics.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist is in a spot politically and socially in Kerala with the police unearthing more and more details regarding the involvement of Peoples Democratic Party leader Madani's wife Sufiya Madani in the Kalamassery bus burning incident and the close rapport both Madani and his wife had with the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayaiba operative Thadiyantavida Naseer.
The Special Investigation Team into the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrasekharan is ready to investigate any case brought forward by Communist Party of India-Marxist, Home Minister Tiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said in Kottayam on Sunday.
Security was stepped up in politically-volatile areas of north Kerala. Two companies of Central Rapid Action Force had been requisitioned by the state government for deployment in Kannur to meet any eventuality, police said.
Among the national parties, the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist opposed the proposal, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National People's Party supported it.
Kerala Minister Saji Cheriyan on Tuesday landed in trouble for his harsh remarks against the Constitution, triggering a huge political row in the state with the opposition demanding for his sacking, but the Left leader later expressed regret and claimed news reports in this connection were 'distorted'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mounted a blistering attack on Trinamool Congress over corruption charges against it and also on CPI-M.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met the top priests of various churches in Kerala, giving a push to the Bharatiya Janata Party's efforts to reach out to the influential minority community in the southern state ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, sources said.
Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has alleged that the Jamat Islami is a religious fundamentalist outfit and said that the Communist Party of India - Marxist has never had an alliance with the organisation. Responding to a question on whether the state government has initiated an inquiry in the activities of the organisation, he said that as it was a national outfit, it was the Centre's responsibility to probe its activities.
Vijayan said that the trailer of the Hindi film, at first glance, appears to be "deliberately produced" with the alleged aim of creating communal polarisation and spreading hate propaganda against the state.
Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former Kerala health minister K K Shailaja has declined to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award as it was instituted in the name of late President of the Philippines, who was known allegedly for his brutality against the Communists.
Meanwhile, the Congress and RSP whole-heartedly backed the Kollam MP.
The split in the Kerala Communist party of India - Marxist grew wider on Wednesday, with Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan defying the politburo line on Governor R S Gavai's decision to give sanction to prosecute Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in a corruption case, saying it neither shocked nor surprised him.
There are few leaders in the Opposition line up who can claim a path to party leadership like Sitaram Yechury and certainly, very few who blended that ascent through student politics with awareness about non-elite real India, urban India and liberal politics, as he did, notes Shyam G Menon.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretariat meeting held at the party headquarters AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has finalized the name of party candidates fighting the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
While the opposition alliance is putting up a united front in Ghosi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand's Dumri, Dhanpur and Boxanagar in Tripura and Uttarakhand's Bageshwar, its constituents are contesting against each other in Dhupguri in West Bengal and Puthuppally in Kerala.
The recently held presidential election and the historic victory of Droupadi Murmu are likely to create political ripples in Kerala as the NDA candidate received an unexpected vote from the southern state.
If Kerala wants to sustain its room for independent thinking and talk back to Delhi when needed, it should put its finances in order. Or - if one takes the North East example - Kerala's political posturing may end up commensurate with its financial dependence on others, suggests Shyam G Menon.
In a major relief to Communist Party of India - Marxist state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, a Central Bureau of Investigation Court in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday dropped him and five others from the list of accused in the SNC-Lavalin corruption case dating to mid-1990s when he was the power minister.
The Communist Party of India Marxist has expelled A P Abdullakutty, its sitting Member of Parliament from Kannur, who has been at loggerheads with the party's district and state leadership.Abdullakutty was first elected to the Parliament in 1999, at the age of 28, while he was the state president of the Students Federation of India.Abdullakutty has been having problems with the party's state leadership due to his reported closeness to Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.
Demanding the resignation of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy over the solar scam, Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Monday said the Congress was setting a "shameless" standard of not accepting responsibility for "what is happening right under its nose."
Noted poet K Satchidanandan has alleged that he was restrained by Facebook from liking, commenting and sharing posts for 24-hours after he tried to upload online a satire video on the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the recently concluded Kerala assembly polls.
The nine VCs include that of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, according to a tweet by Kerala Raj Bhavan on behalf of the Governor.
The rivalry between party veteran V S Achuthanandan and Communist Party of India-Marxist Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan appears to be heading to a flashpoint, pushing the party to its worst crisis in recent times.
'While the Congressmen were fighting, the LDF was quietly doing its job, perhaps bringing in results in the lives of the people.' 'Pinarayi Vijayan and several ministers in his cabinet believed that the government should do real business, which is not to fight with the UDF but govern.'
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan's decision to exclude some media groups from his interaction with reporters in Kochi on Monday evoked sharp criticism from the ruling Communist Party of India-Maxist and the opposition Congress, with both terming the action as "fascist".
More screenings are expected to take place in some colleges in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram later Tuesday, a senior police officer said.
'Kerala may have the worst physical infrastructure -- potholed roads to overflowing drains -- of the four major southern states, but does anybody care? Given all this you may think Kerala's voters lack any options come Election Day. That would be a mistake.'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday refuted the Congress charge as 'baseless' that her party had not fielded a candidate against Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan in the April 13 assembly elections as part of a secret pact with the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist, the lead partner in the Left Democratic Front in Kerala has re-nominated 54 sitting members, including Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and eight ministers. But it has also included 30 new names as candidates for the April 13 elections to the state assembly. The 91-member list also includes 10 women and seven independents. The party nominated T K Gangadharan as the candidate for Mahe segment in Puducherry.