NEW DELHI: Prakash Karat was a high school boy of 16 in Madras when the Communist Party of India split in 1964, half a century ago. The thorny dilemma then was the degree of proximity to the Congress -- more or less the same question, though dressed up in ideological/tactical language, now underlies a bitter factional fight for control of the party and its line, as it prepares for a back-to-the-wall struggle to retain its relevance in the Narendra Modi era.

Karat is fighting a grim personal battle at this delicate juncture for the party. His decade-long stint as CPM general secretary winds down next year, and he is trying to hold off a stern challenge from fellow comrade and contemporary Sitaram Yechury, the proponent of a pragmatic line in tune with the need of the hour. Karat’s more theoretically solid, but inflexible tactics have seen the party tumble from its best showing in the 2004 Lok Sabha  elections in which the combined Left won 62 seats, to a bleak scenario where it has been reduced to an also-ran in its old citadel West Bengal, and is struggling in Kerala where  factionalism rules the roost.

The severity of the challenge was brought out  at the party’s recent Central Committee meeting -- the general secretary’s official draft resolution on the tactical consensus had to be withdrawn for “revision”.

Similar circumstances have seen CPM general secretaries step down as P Sundarayya did after the Emergency, or offer to do so as Harkishen Singh Surjeet did when his proposal to have Jyoti Basu lead a combined Opposition government in 1996 floundered against a more puritan line, commandeered by then young Karat. But in a similar situation, Karat himself has stopped short of doing so, preferring to try and ride over it by accommodating dissent, mainly because of the crucial handing over of the baton next year that might well decide the party’s survival chances at a time of extreme political attrition. The Party Congress is scheduled to be held in Vishakhapatnam in April. An acceptance of Yechury’s proposal, which amounts to an admission of gross leadership failure in the last decade, would automatically put the Andhra-born comrade in line for the top responsibility.

For Yechury’s challenge to bear fruit, he needs to be able to carry the crucial Kerala unit with him, which is under the powerful pro-Karat state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

Only if there is a parallel voice of dissent in Kerala, can he hope to mop up support from the Tamil Nadu and Andhra units. Lonely veteran V S Achuthanandan’s contrarian note at the Central Committee meeting is not enough.