THIRD state conference of the CPI(M) Telangana committee was held successfully from January 22-25, 2022 in Turkyamjal, Rangareddy district. A total of 455 delegates, 95 observers and 15 veterans attended the conference. Among them were 82 women. 302 delegates attending the conference were below 50 years of age; 386 delegates came from socially oppressed sections and 316 delegates belonged to the basic classes – working class, agricultural workers and poor peasants. 401 delegates joined the Party in the last 30 years. Few elected delegates from the state centre and districts, who were infected with the Coronavirus, took participated online in the conference. In this manner, this was the first conference held in hybrid mode.

The state conference commenced with an online public meeting held on January 22. General secretary of the Party, Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau Members, Brinda Karat and B V Raghavulu, state secretary, Tammineni Veerabhadram, state secretariat members Jyoti and Ranga Reddy addressed the public meeting. Thousands of people from across the state participated in the public meeting. Large screens were placed in 155 centres for public viewing.

The delegate session of the conference started on the 23rd with flag hoisting by the senior leader of the Party, Sarampalli Mallareddy. Sitaram Yechury inaugurated the conference explaining the international and national situation and the tasks before the communist movement. Talking about the challenges before the Party in the current situation, he pointed out that defeating and ousting BJP from power assumes utmost priority given the all-around attacks it had launched on the people of our country.

Chada Venkat Reddy, state secretary of the CPI and V Srinivasa Rao, state secretary of the CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh committee addressed the delegates and extended their greetings.

All the delegates participating physically in the conference followed all the necessary covid related protocols. All of them attended the conference only after testing negative in the RT-PCR test. These precautionary measures were necessitated following the third wave of the Covid pandemic. In this context, the state secretariat and committee met and ultimately, on January 20th it was finally decided that the conference should not be postponed and conducted on the decided dates. All the delegates opined that this is in fact a correct decision. Experience taught us how to proceed with our organisational activities even in the face of unforeseen hardships. Online links were provided to those delegates who were not able to physically participate in the conference.

The organisational and activities report presented by the state secretary self-critically dealt with the achievements and the weaknesses of the movement. Complimenting the special resolution moved on the political situation in the state, the report elaborated the context in which the Party has to work in the state, the assessment of Party organisation and future tasks. Nineteen future tasks were specified in the report.

The report dealt with the manner in which the state committee implemented the all India political tactical line adopted in the last Party Congress in Telangana and the experiences gathered. It also detailed how the Kolkata Plenum’s direction of building a revolutionary Party with the mass line was implemented.

In these four years, there were many positive features that helped the Party in conducting various agitation and propaganda programmes. The two years of the Covid pandemic had adversely affected various programmes and hampered Party’s planned activities. Despite all the obstacles, the Party was able to wage some important struggles on people’s issues. The conference reviewed the experiences of these struggles and identified that they had enhanced the prestige of the Party in the state.

One of the important struggles that were conducted was by Podu cultivators. It was a sustained struggle conducted in tribal majority districts. In Mulugu and Bhadradri districts extreme repression was unleashed. Police raided adivasis’ houses in the mid-night, atrocities were committed on women, agricultural fields that have come to harvest were destroyed. Cases were foisted on thousands of adivasis, hundreds were sent to jail. In spite of this severe repression, our Party and mass organisations continued the struggle. A joint struggle was conducted by bringing together other Left parties and forces. Ultimately the government agreed to give pattas to the cultivators. This movement had a big impact on the entire state.

The Party also participated actively in the struggle against RTC privatisation and also organised many solidarity activities. The conference felt that the struggle for cultivable land pattas, homesteads, Singareni, anganwadi, ASHA, municipal, panchayat workers and other sections of the working class helped in reinforcing the class credentials of the Party among these basic classes.

The solidarity activities conducted by the Party in support of the farmer’s struggle and also on issues that are effecting the peasantry also contributed to the spread of our Party’s influence. Through these various struggles, we tried to establish and improve our mass contacts.

However, the conference identified that in spite of all these struggles, we failed to consolidate and improve our mass base. The main weakness in identifying and politicising our contacts was self-critically accepted.

The conference also discussed the efforts made to improve the organisational capabilities of the Party. An effort was made to improve the functioning of all the Party branches and each branch was assigned the responsibility of identifying activists who can be recruited into auxiliary groups. It was decided that right from the state secretary, all the leaders should attend branch meetings, help in the formation of auxiliaries and ensure their regular functioning. The Party conference unanimously opined that regular monitoring from the centre helped in implementing this decision. As a result, 2,800 auxiliary groups were formed with 25,000 members. Youth and women were given priority; 31 state organisers and 600 district and local level organisers were identified to ensure the regular functioning of these auxiliary groups. Most of these auxiliaries met regularly for the past nine months and as a result of these efforts, 2,500 new candidate members were recruited in 2022. The conference reviewed the implementation of this carefully planned organisational task. It felt that such efforts should become a regular feature of the Party and hence be continued.

The conference also reviewed the implementation of the decision to review most of our membership for 2022 before the state conference commences. Accordingly, 87 per cent of Party membership was renewed between January 1-21,2022.

Political education plays a key role in rousing the consciousness levels of our cadre. Even during the pandemic when almost all our activities were affected, online political classes and study circles were regularly conducted. For two years before the pandemic, we had conducted 7-10 days of political schools every year at all levels. Teacher training schools were also conducted. During the pandemic, the Party and all our mass organisations gained experience in conducting online seminars, study circles and political classes. The conference felt that the usage of online platforms to propagate our ideology should be continued, complementing our efforts to conduct political schools physically.

The main political task of fighting the spreading influence of RSS and Hindutva ideology was also discussed in the conference. To fight the attack on our constitutional values a broad platform was formed involving various social movements and eminent personalities. A platform to expose the irrational beliefs and superstitions propagated by the Hindutva forces was also formed. Similarly, a cultural forum to use people’s culture and folk-art forms to counter Manuvadi ideology was also formed. Using these multiple platforms and forums, the Party tried to expose the BJP. Campaigns against the CAA, NRC, abrogation of Article 370, attacks on the rights of minorities, communalisation of education and attacks on women and dalits were conducted. However, the conference felt that these efforts are not sufficient to counter the spreading influence of the RSS and other communal forces. It was decided that in the coming days, priority should be accorded to expose the neoliberal philosophy of the BJP and its divisive communal ideology. Hence the fight should be conducted in economic, political, social, cultural and ideological spheres.

Another major initiative of the Party was in undertaking service activities during the Covid period. The Party organised isolation centres in many cities including Hyderabad. Food was provided to the needy during the lockdown period. Helpline centres were started with the help of our IT cadre.

Along with these positive points the conference also noted some weaknesses. The formation of BLF in 2018 and certain slogans given during that period was identified as against our Party’s ideological positions. It was felt that the intervention of the PB, bringing to our notice the mistakes committed helped in rectifying the situation. PB’s letter was taken down to all the branches and explained. This helped in overcoming the political, ideological mistakes and unifying the entire Party. The conference decided to be vigilant on the influence of identity politics on our cadre and carry out the continuous struggle against them.

The conference also reviewed the working of our mass organisations and felt that though many of them are working independently, there are weaknesses in the formation of local committees, building movements on the issues confronting the sections among which they are working and developing leadership at the grassroots level.

There are 650 full-time cadres in Telangana. The conference felt that in the coming days, Party should monitor their functioning, assign them proper responsibilities and ensure that commensurate results are obtained.

The conference report also noted that during the course of the implementation of the political tasks during this period, particularly in the bye-elections held, there was confusion among our cadre on the tactics we had pursued.

The conference decided that conducting uncompromising struggles against the anti-people policies of the TRS government should be one of the important tasks in the coming days. Ideologically training and equipping our cadre to fight the RSS, BJP offensive is another major task decided by the conference. Through championing the interests of the people and maintaining live contacts with them, the Party should be strengthened to retain its past glory of the Telangana people’s struggle.

Prakash Karat, Polit Bureau Member addressed the conference on the last day and brought to notice certain weaknesses that the Party in Telangana needs to overcome. He emphasised the need to strengthen the independent strength of our Party and lead the fight against communal forces.

B V Raghavulu, Polit Bureau Member also spoke pointing to the various opportunities that are available in the state for the expansion of the Party. He also spoke about the need to undertake  concrete study to identify the issues confronting the people and build a movement on that basis.

The conference concluded by electing a 60-member state committee, which in turn elected a 15-member secretariat. Thammineni Veerabhadram was re-elected as the state secretary. There are eight women in the newly elected state committee and two women in the secretariat. Delegates to the upcoming 23rd Party Congress in Kannur were also elected. The conference concluded by thanking the reception committee for the excellent arrangements it had made for its successful conduct, especially during the Corona pandemic.