The CPI(M) while working for the long-term objective of replacing the big bourgeoisie led bourgeois-landlord rule has been working out interim slogans to meet the concrete political situation. The CPI(M) has been participating in elections at various levels -- the national parliament, state assemblies, municipalities and other local bodies.
The first communist ministry ever to come to office through popular elections was the ministry headed by Comrade E.M.S. Namboodiripad in Kerala. In the 1957 elections the undivided Communist Party of India won the elections to the Kerala Legislative assembly. Though this ministry was later dismissed undemocratically by an authoritarian Congress regime ruling at the Centre, it drew world-wide attention. Presently, the CPI(M) heads three governments in the states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.
West Bengal, which lies in the Eastern part of India (with a population of 65 million) has a Left Front government headed by the CPI(M) which has been uninterruptedly in office since 1977. It has won elections for seven consecutive terms. Comrade Jyoti Basu, the longest serving Chief Minister of any Indian state, laid down office after being at the helm uninterruptedly for 23 years. Dy. Chief Minister, Com. Buddhadev Bhattacharya, was sworn in the new Chief Minister on November 6, 2000. In the 2006 elections, the CPI(M) won 176 seats and the total strength of the Left Front in an assembly of 294 is 235. There are ten parties in the Left Front coalition. The West Bengal Left Front government in one of its first major policy measures, implemented land reform legislation. 1.005 million acres of land were taken from landlords who had more than the ceiling set up by law and distributed to 2.35 million landless peasants. Another measure, Operation Barga, as it was popularly known, provided security to sharecroppers. Despite being discriminated against by the Central government, which was ruled by the Congress party for most of the time, in the matter of finances and allocation of industries, the Left Front government in West Bengal has tried to provide as much relief to the people as possible, within the constraints imposed by the Indian constitution.
In the south, in Kerala, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) headed by the CPI(M) has been in and out of office. The LDF has come back to power in the 2006 assembly elections. In a 140-member assembly, the Left Democratic Front has strength of 98 of which the CPI(M) has 61 members.
In the North-Eastern state of Tripura, the CPI(M) led Left Front first came to office in 1977. The Left Front was elected to office for the next two consecutive terms also. However, the Left Front was dislodged from power in the 1988 elections, through a rigged and manipulated verdict engineered by the Congress party which was in power at the Centre. The CPI(M) was during the five-year term of the Congress-TUJS regime in office, was subjected to vicious attacks and semi fascist terror. Hundreds of its cadres were brutally killed, while hundreds of others were forced to leave their homes for safer places. In a fitting reply to these cowardly attacks to cow down the Party and the Left, in the 1987 elections, the CPI(M)- led Left Front, was put back in the saddle by the people of the state. Elections to the Tripura assembly were held in Feb. 1998 along with the General Elections in the rest of the country. The CPI(M)-led Left Front once again swept the elections getting a two-thirds majority. Out of a total tally of 41 seats for the Left Front in the 60 member House, the CPI(M) alone has 38. Manik Sarkar, Member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) is the Chief Minister of Tripura.
