The Buddhadeb of the south

Pinarayi: The reason that Pinarayi Vijayan, this northern communist bastion's most famous son will not become chief minister, says a Marxist ideologue, is because he's right wing.

"He's the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya of Kerala," says 'Berlin' Kunhanandan Nair, former correspondent of the now defunct Blitz and an old world style Marxist who has spent years in East Germany. Hence the nickname.

"Everyone says the battle between Pinarayi and VS [Achudanandan] is personal. It is not, it's ideological, it's a fight between the right wing and the left-wing," says Nair, adding "look how it misfired".

"Pinarayi's strategy was to make Paloly Mohammed Kutty the chief ministerial candidate, and drive it from the back seat. But Paloly is like pure water, colourless, tasteless, with no smell. He's a good man, not corrupt, but he's not meant to rule. The denial of a seat to VS inflamed public passions so much it compelled them to change their attitude. The Politburo was forced to correct its right wing tendencies."

Right wing? "Pinarayi supports the Asian Development Bank loans and assistance. But the old communists have not changed like he has. They do not support him. This is the reason for his isolation from the party."

Pinarayi, whose report after the party's defeat five years ago blamed the apparatchik's rudeness for turning the people against them, was unfailingly polite when I reached him. In Ernakulam for a campaign rally, he said he would have liked to talk but the party was supreme.