> Ulhas writes:
>
> > CPs will support the Congress ministry, but I
> > would be surprised if they join the government.
>
> That sounds like a principled move to me.
Yes. The support will be based on a common minimum programme agreed in advance by all coalition partners; including the Congress Party. e.g. CPs are likely to insist that there will be no privatisation of profit making state owned enterprises. With 63 seats out 543 in a hung parliament, the Left can bring down the government any time.
> What's the difference between the various CPs?
CPIM is the largest party; (their formal programmes don't really matter; they are irrelevant. But since you ask: CPIM belives in the People's Democratic Revolution, the schema popular in 50s in the post war Stalin era. CPI believed in National Democratic Revolution; it is easy understand this schema if you are familiar with Kalecki's thesis about the so-called intermediate regimes.)
>I assume there are historical differences (having to do with the
>Sino-Soviet split, >Naxalites, etc.), but do these count for anything
>anymore?
No, they don't.
>How do the CPI and CPI(M) get along? Which one governs Kerala and which one
>?>governs West Bengal?
They have jointly governed West Bengal with other Left parties, since 1977. Remember West Bengal's population is 80-90 million. In Kerala, every alternate government is usually the Left Front government.
>And how big are the various factions of the CPI(ML)?
I don't follow the CPIML's evolution any longer. These are smaller parties, some believe in armed struggles, others participate in elections. Maoism is an anachronism, IMO. India is planning to put a spacecraft in moon's orbit in 2008, but these guys seem to believe India is a semi-feudal, semi-colonial social formation. But I could wrong, I stopped following their activities long time ago.
Ulhas