The CPI(M) central committee, which meets on April 17, 18 and 19 is scheduled to discuss problems in the State unit of the party, especially the charges of sabotage of official candidates during recent elections. Both factions, armed with ``documents'', are gearing up to argue their case at the central forum.

In Ernakulam, the district committee has initiated an inquiry into suspected anti-party activities whereas in Alappuzha, the district from where Achuthanandan hails, a committee has recommended action against former MP T.J.Anjalose. Another man facing the axe is Appukuttan Vallikunnu, who is known for hiswritings in the party organ, Deshabhimani.

Nearly half a dozen pamphlets denigrating leaders in the camp led by polit buro member Achuthanandan are in circulation. The pamphleteers have remained underground despite efforts by an official panel, led by CPI(M) secretariat member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, to unearth them.

The Save CPM Forum's pamphlets attack Achuthanandan for his ``imperious attitude to comrades and unedifying gestures at public speeches''.

For a party which had managed to sweep dissidence under the carpet with alacrity, these are bad days. On the two occasions when the party could not hide it and when the dissidence reached the media and the public the trouble had led to disastrous consequences. Once it led to the formation of M.V.Raghavan's Communist Marxist Party, the second time K.R. Gowri departed to form her own outfit. But never has the war been so obvious and widespread as this time.

The current spell of troubles aggravated with the elimination of 11 members -- belonging to theCITU camp -- from the outgoing State committee at the Palakkad State conference in January. CITU State general secretary K.N.Raveendranath and LDF convener M.M.Lawrence, who were secretariat members, were defeated in the elections to the State committee. Instead, former DYFI leaders M.A.Baby and S.Sarma were elected to the secretariat. Achuthanandan emerged as the power centre in the party. What followed was a witch-hunt.

Paradoxically, Achuthanandan, who has been for long a victim of persecution within the party is seen to employ the same tactics against those he reckons to be his rivals. The witch-hunt, which is given ideological colours, has deepened the chasm in the party and the impact is visible across the party -- from the top to the local units.

For the CPM, whose influence is confined to three States, troubles in the second important State will prove costly. The leaders have relegated serious issues like shaping a broader agenda to take on the BJP, the idelogoical foe, and fine-tuning responsesto what the party perceives as perpetual attacks from imperialist economic forces. All this at a time when the party is yet to find a theoretician and anti-bourgeoisie strategist of the stature of EMS Namboodiripad.

In fact, few leaders realise the futility of winning a battle within the party when the war outside is lost. The factional victory in Alappuzha is no compensation for the electoral rout of the party in the district. And for the CITU, the fight is no longer on the economic front against policies guided by WTO, but against the `Stalinist' Achuthanandan.

In the process, both the groups seem to have forgotten the larger national fight against the BJP. The internecine factional feud will certainly weaken the CPI(M) in Kerala, the only State where the BJP is yet to make inroads. The organisational collapse of the major partner in the Left is likely to result in cadres drifting towards the camps once vehemently fought by communists.

The Left Democratic Front government, headed by the CPI(M)'s E.K.Nayanar, is in its second year in office. In Kerala, the two fronts -- the LDF and the Congress-led United Democratic Front -- has come to power alternately. The faction fight in the leading party of the LDF gives enough signals that the pattern is likely to stay.