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M A Baby faces several significant challenges: Helping the CPI (M)-led LDF secure a third consecutive term in Kerala's 2026 assembly elections and regaining ground lost in the party's traditional strongholds of West Bengal, Tripura and other regions.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist elected 71-year-old Mariam Alexander Baby as its new general secretary in Madurai on Sunday, April 6, 2025.
His appointment and other key changes in the CPI-M politburo mark the end of the Prakash Karat-Sitaram Yechury era, and a generational shift in the party's leadership.
The CPI-M announced a reshuffled 18-member politburo -- the party's highest decision-making body -- with eight new members inducted.
The transition echoes changes last seen at the 14th party congress in Madras in January 1992, when Harkishan Singh Surjeet succeeded E M S Namboodiripad as party chief, and both Karat and Yechury joined the politburo for the first time.
They would go on to serve as Surjeet's key lieutenants until his retirement in 2005, when Karat took over the leadership.
At the 24th party congress in Madurai, which concluded on Sunday, senior leaders including Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar and former Lok Sabha MP Subhashini Ali retired from the politburo, the CPI-M's top decision-making body, having all crossed the age of 75.
Yechury, who led the party from 2015 until his death in September 2024, was succeeded on an interim basis by Karat. Baby now takes the helm following these transitions.
Among those newly inducted into the politburo include Kisan Sabha General Secretary Vijoo Krishnan, Mariam Dhawale and Lok Sabha MP Amra Ram.
Baby becomes the second CPI-M general secretary from Kerala after Namboodiripad, underlining the enduring prominence of the state's party unit.
He is also the second leader from a minority community to hold the post since the party's founding in 1964, following Surjeet.
Like Surjeet, who was born into a Sikh family, Baby -- born into a Christian family -- is a self-declared atheist.
Baby now faces several significant challenges: Helping the CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front secure a third consecutive term in Kerala's 2026 assembly elections, and regaining ground lost in the party's traditional strongholds of West Bengal, Tripura, and other regions.
He will also be expected to revitalise the party's engagement in India's cultural and educational arena.
In the past, Baby played a key role in founding the Kochi Biennale art exhibition and the Swaralaya cultural organisation in Delhi.
Hailing from Prakkulam in Kollam district, Baby began his political journey as a student, joining the Kerala Students Federation, the predecessor to the Students Federation of India (SFI), the CPI-M's student wing.
He later served as editor of the party's Malayalam publication Deshabhimani, and was a Rajya Sabha MP from 1986 to 1998.
From 2006 to 2011, he held the post of education minister in the LDF government led by V S Achuthanandan. He joined the politburo at the party's 20th congress in 2012.
Baby is married to Betty Louis, a former journalist with a television news channel. The couple have one son.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
