HARD ROAD AHEAD FOR BABY

Mariam Alexander Baby, a soft-spoken and erudite veteran who once helmed Kerala's storied education policy as minister, has taken over as the new CPI(M) general secretary.

- By Jeemon Jacob

The top post within the party had been lying vacant since Sitaram Yechury passed away last September, and the 71-year-old Baby inherits the suite of complex challenges that come with the territory. It’s a shrinking one: the country’s biggest Marxist party is now reduced to holding fort along a sliver at its southern tip, having lost old bastions like West Bengal and Tripura.

The CPI(M)’s 24th all-India party congress at Madurai (April 2-6) also elected an 18-member politburo and 85-member central committee that saw the debut of 30 new leaders.

It marked a generational shift in the party leadership, with veterans like the Karats (Prakash and wife Brinda), Subhashini Ali, Manik Sarkar, Suryakanta Mishra and G. Ramakrishna bowing out from the politburo after an age cap (75 years) was adopted. The 79-year-old Kerala chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, though, retained his place.