CPI(M)’s 22nd Party Congress is going to be held from April 18 to 22, 2018 at Hyderabad, Telangana. It is the highest policy making body of the CPI(M) meeting every three years. The Party Congress finalises the political resolution which spells out the analysis of the current situation and the tactics to be adopted in the near future. It also reviews organizational issues and decides how they ought to be tackled. The meet will also elect a new central committee, which will elect a new Polit Bureau and general secretary.
The Hyderabad meet is being attended by about 800 delegates elected from all the states and union territories.
The CPI(M) is one of the biggest communist parties in the world with over a million members and with links to trade unions, farmers’ organisations and other mass organisations whose membership is over 6 crore (60 million).
The Congress and the months long preceding exercise covering all of the Party membership is a unique feature practiced only by the Communist Parties in India.
Preceding the Congress, a draft political resolution prepared by the central committee was released in January this year for discussion amongst all party members - over a million of them. The party’s has over 1 lakh primary units (‘branches’) which held meetings to discuss the draft. Any party branch or member can suggest amendments to the resolution which the Central Committee must consider. Amendments are finally decided upon by the Party Congress.
Simultaneously, party conferences were held from the lowest to highest levels. Thus over a lakh party branch conferences, nearly a thousand local/zonal or district conferences and 26 state conferences were held across the country. Besides discussing the political situation at the appropriate level, each conference elected delegates to attend the conference at the next higher level. State conferences elected delegates to the Congress, based on share of party membership in each state.
The Congress is slated to discuss many key issues that will impact India’s political developments in the coming years. Foremost on the agenda will be finalizing struggle programmes for defeating the incumbent Modi govt. at the centre. Recent months have seen a rising tide of movements by workers, farmers and various other sections of people launching angry protests against the BJP govt. ruling in several states and the centre. These will be reviewed and tactics for their expansion will be worked out at the Congress.