Vijay Patil
ON March 1, 2025, the 24th Maharashtra State Conference of the CPI(M) concluded at Selu, Parbhani district, in the Marathwada region, with the unanimous election of a 50-member state committee which has 12 women (24 per cent), as against 9 women (18 per cent) earlier. The new state committee unanimously elected a 15-member state secretariat which has two women, as against one earlier. It also unanimously elected 47-year-old Ajit Nawale as the new state secretary. Incumbent state secretary Uday Narkar politely declined re-election due to health reasons.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and coordinator Prakash Karat, Polit Bureau members Nilotpal Basu and Ashok Dhawale attended this conference. A total of 337 delegates from 29 districts, who included 63 women (19 per cent), attended.
The state conference began on the morning of February 27 with the flag-hoisting by senior leaders Narasayya Adam, Udayan Sharma, Datta Mane and Shivgonda Khot, all of them aged 80-82 years. Floral tributes were paid to martyrs. The cultural troupe Praja Natya Mandal from Solapur presented revolutionary songs. CPI(M) Parbhani district secretary Uddhav Poul, and Reception Committee chairperson Prof U R Thombal welcomed the delegates, outlining the shining legacy of the district during the freedom struggle and the Marathwada Liberation Struggle against the Nizam.
Prakash Karat delivered the inaugural speech. He analysed the rise of far-right imperialist powers at the international level signified by Donald Trump, their impact on the world and on India, the genocidal war against Palestine, and the ascendance of global right-wing forces. But he also stressed the valiant resistance put up and the victories registered by socialist countries and by left-wing forces in Latin America and Sri Lanka.
Prakash Karat attacked the neo-fascist, communal, manuwadi and pro-corporate character of the Modi-led RSS-BJP regime. Referring to the struggles waged by the CPI(M), he called for a massive increase in them. Finally, he underlined the need for the CPI(M) and the Left forces to increase their independent strength manifold, while forging the broad unity of all secular forces to defeat the RSS-BJP. The session ended with the presidential remarks by Uday Narkar.
The delegate session began the same afternoon with the election of the presidium, which comprised Vijay Gabhane, Vinod Nikole, MLA, Indrajit Gavit, Naseema Shaikh and Shailendra Kamble. After the election of other committees, Vijay Patil placed the condolence resolution.
The stage backdrop had large pictures of Sitaram Yechury and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Sitaram had been the Polit Bureau member-in-charge of Maharashtra for over 25 years from 1990 to 2015, and there was hardly any district in the state in which he had not addressed numerous agitations, public meetings or political classes.
The venue of the state conference was named after Kumar Shiralkar, former Central Committee member, the hall after Barkya Mangat and Jaising Mali, and the stage after Ashok Banerjee, Pandit Munde and Shankarrao Danav, all former state committee members.
REPORT AND RESOLUTIONS
In the delegate session, the political-organisational report was presented by state secretary Uday Narkar. Four printed booklets of the report – political report, organisational report, organisational report statistical charts, and mass front reports – were circulated to all the delegates. The various mass front reports of the last three years were briefly placed as follows: trade union - D L Karad, kisan - Ajit Nawale, khetmazdoor - Baliram Bhumbe, women - Prachi Hatiwlekar, youth - Datta Chavan, students - Rohidas Jadhav, teachers – Madhu Paranjape.
The political report, dealing with the Maharashtra situation, highlights the thoroughly venal role of the BJP-NDA in dislodging the MVA-INDIA bloc state government by splitting the Shiv Sena and the NCP. It then analyses the reasons for the diametrically opposite results of the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, the first being swept by the MVA, and the second by the NDA. The return to power of the second Fadnavis-led BJP-NDA regime has been followed by the most shocking events, like the cold-blooded murder in police custody of a poor youth named Somnath Suryawanshi and severe repression against dalits in Parbhani district; and the extremely gruesome and scandalous murder of a sarpanch in Beed district named Santosh Deshmukh, the prime accused being one Valmik Karad, who is the right hand man of Dhananjay Munde, a minister in the Fadnavis government, who has just been forced to resign. There are many other cases of hate crimes against minorities, dalits, and others.
The organisational report takes stock of the major struggles and campaigns led by the Party and the mass fronts in the last three years. While giving credit to some impressive actions, the report underlines the need to greatly increase the sweep, the intensity, and the consistency of these struggles. Politically, in the Vidhan Sabha elections of 2024, the CPI(M) won the Dahanu (ST) seat in Palghar district for the tenth time in the last 11 elections since 1978, by garnering nearly 1,05,000 votes and defeating the BJP. In the other Kalwan (ST) seat in Nashik district, although the CPI(M) garnered over 1,10,000 votes, it lost to the NCP (Ajit Pawar) by a small margin of around 8,000 votes. Both these seats were fought as part of the MVA.
Party membership shows a small increase from 12,837 in 2021 to 14,406 in 2024. Party levy coming to the state committee is between Rs 32 lakh to Rs 39 lakh in the last four years. 51 per cent of Party members work on the kisan front, 20 per cent on the trade union front, 3 per cent on the agricultural workers front, 10 per cent on the youth front, 9 per cent on the womens’ front, 2 per cent on the students’ front, and 5 per cent on other fronts.
The total membership of all the six main class and mass fronts has increased in the last three years from 7,53,694 (2020-21) to 8,30,321 (2023-24). The trade union front increased from 1,71,260 to 1,73,071; the kisan front from 2,35,613 to 3,00,476; the agricultural workers front from 53,538 to 62,282; the women’s front from 1,07378 to 1,18,147; and the students’ front from 23,046 to 39,172. There was a decline only on the youth front, from 1,58,848 to 1,37,173.
On February 28, 59 delegates participated in the six-hour long discussion on the Report. Of them 15 (25 per cent) were women. After the state secretary's reply on the last day, the report was unanimously adopted. Eight resolutions on socio-political issues were also adopted.
On February 27 evening, an impressive rally of thousands of peasants and workers marched through Selu and it concluded with a large public meeting. This day was the martyrdom anniversary of the legendary socialist freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azad. It was also the birth anniversary of a great progressive literary figure of Maharashtra V V Shirwadkar (Kusumagraj), a winner of the Jnanpith Award. His birth anniversary is celebrated every year as World Marathi Day. Both these events were alluded to in the speeches of the leaders.
The public meeting was addressed by Prakash Karat, Ashok Dhawale, Uday Narkar, Narasayya Adam, J P Gavit, Mariam Dhawale, Ajit Nawale, D L Karad, Vinod Nikole MLA, Ramkrishna Shere and Rameshwar Poul, while Dattusingh Thakur presided.
On the morning of February 28, a session of Left unity was held. Leaders of all the five Left parties in the state - Jayant Patil of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), Ram Baheti of the CPI, Ajit Patil of the CPI(ML-L), Bhimrao Bansod of the Lal Nishan Party, and Kishore Dhamale of the Satyashodhak Communist Party, greeted the conference.
On the night of February 28, the 'Pratyay Group' of Kolhapur presented a two-hour play called 'Marx in Soho', originally written by Howard Zinn and adapted in Marathi. It was a very impressive performance which was greatly appreciated by all the delegates.
On February 28 evening, the renowned Nutan High School in Selu organised a public lecture by Prakash Karat on the topic "75 Years of the Indian Constitution - New Challenges". More than 1,000 middle class people attended. This lecture was widely appreciated.
CONCLUDING SESSION
On March 1, Polit Bureau member Nilotpal Basu addressed the conference. He explained the concept of neo-fascism, underlined the grave danger of the RSS-BJP, and the intensified communal drive, micro-social management, along with other factors that led to the sea change in the results of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra.
The Credentials Committee report was placed by Ajay Burande. It had many interesting features. For instance, 54 per cent of the total 337 delegates were less than 50 years of age. 31 per cent were from poor peasants, 15 per cent from middle peasants, 24 per cent from agricultural workers, 23 per cent from the working class, and 7 per cent from the middle class. 34 per cent were adivasis, 12 per cent were dalits, 12 per cent were OBCs, 4 per cent were minorities, 3 per cent were nomadic tribes, and 35 per cent were from the general category. 35 per cent were working in the trade union front, 31 per cent in the kisan front, 11 per cent in the women’s front, 10 per cent in the youth front, 3 per cent in the agricultural workers front, 3 per cent in the students’ front, and 7 per cent in other fronts. 201 delegates had agitation-related police cases against them. 93 delegates had undergone agitation-related imprisonment for varying periods, and 12 had been underground for varying periods. 96 delegates were whole timers, and another 119 expressed the desire to be whole timers.
After the unanimous election of the Party’s state leadership referred to above, the conference elected a three-member State Control Commission, which elected Prof Madhu Paranjape as chairperson. 17 delegates including 3 women, 3 alternate delegates including 1 woman, and 2 observers were also unanimously elected to the 24th CPI(M) Party Congress at Madurai.
After brief speeches by outgoing state secretary Uday Narkar and incoming state secretary Ajit Nawale, the veteran comrades who were being relieved were warmly felicitated. Polit Bureau member Ashok Dhawale in his concluding speech, congratulated the Parbhani comrades for excellently organising the conference, and all the delegates for their unity and determination in the most difficult circumstances of the past few years. He appealed to them to maintain and strengthen Left and secular unity, and to focus on waging struggles, strengthening the ideological struggle, and building a strong organisation to increase our independent strength many times over.
The CPI(M) Parbhani district Committee and all the volunteers were felicitated for their tremendous work in making this state conference a great success. The conference concluded amidst great enthusiasm with the singing of the Internationale.
Over Rs 50,000 worth of Party books and progressive literature was sold in this state conference. Copies of the Draft Political Review Report and the Draft Political Resolution of the Madurai Party Congress, both brought out as the Party organ 'Jeewan Marg' special issues, were given to all the delegates for their study and for sending their amendments.
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