CPM alarmed by shrinking student base

At a time when former members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)—the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—are actively steering the central government, and the ABVP is gaining ground in campuses once considered Left bastions, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, has expressed deep concern over the declining influence of its student organisation.

A report adopted at the CPM’s highest decision-making body, the Party Congress, held in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, reveals that the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), its student arm, is shrinking in reach and relevance—a development the party sees as alarming. “It is a matter of concern that the student front is not developing and expanding its influence in many states,” states the Report on Organisation for the 24th Congress. The five-day summit concluded on April 6.

The report goes on to specify that in the Hindi-speaking belt—barring Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and, to some extent, Delhi—SFI is either stagnant or negligible. “In Uttar Pradesh, the membership is negligible; in Bihar, it is stagnant. As also in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh,” it notes. The picture is similarly bleak in Punjab, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. “In Odisha, the (CPM) state committee took some steps to revive the organisation, but the progress is limited.”

The party’s concern stems from the broader understanding that student organisations often serve as recruitment grounds for political parties. A weak student wing signals not only poor future leadership but also diminished grassroots mobilisation. In India, as elsewhere, the strength of a party’s student front is closely linked to its wider political vitality. Historically, student groups affiliated with Communist parties have been instrumental in amplifying Left influence both electorally and ideologically.

The anxiety within the CPM is not limited to its electoral decline, though that has been steep. More troubling for the party is its waning relevance as a vehicle for political dissent—an erosion that threatens its capacity to shape national discourse and regain electoral traction in the future.

At its peak in 2004, the Left bloc—which included CPM, CPI, Forward Bloc, and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)—held 59 Lok Sabha seats (excluding independents it supported), playing a pivotal role in coalition-era politics. Today, CPM holds just four seats, a sharp fall from the 43 it commanded in 2004.

Unsurprisingly, the organisational report admits: “A key weakness remains in converting students engaged in campus movements into committed cadre. There are also gaps in providing consistent ideological and political education.” It stresses the need to nurture full-time workers and deepen their ideological grounding.

Following its historic defeat in West Bengal in 2011—after 34 uninterrupted years in power—and its 2018 loss in Tripura, the CPM’s electoral footprint has withered. Only in Kerala has it managed to retain power, winning a second consecutive term in 2021. In the other two former strongholds, the party has suffered a sharp organisational and electoral decline. “In West Bengal, though a large number of students take part in our activities, not enough of them are trained to become party members,” the report acknowledges.

The document also criticises “Hindutva communal forces” for “corrupting the minds of the students through their cultural interventions”. Meanwhile, several delegates at the Party Congress, which unanimously elected 71-year-old MA Baby as its general secretary, a former student leader, voiced dissatisfaction with the leadership’s failure to cultivate a robust second-rung leadership.

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