It was hardly the kind of homecoming that Ramesh Chennithala was looking forward to. When the 49-year-old genial Congressman was appointed as president of the party state unit, it was a signal to the demoralised cadres to ready themselves to take on the Left in the assembly elections next year. Instead, Chennithala found the comrades on the offensive.

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STRIKING DOWN: Students being lathicharged by the police

Last week, around the time Chennithala was being received by ecstatic Congressmen at Thiruvananthapuram airport, the student wing of the CPI(M) hit the streets protesting against the fee structure of private professional colleges. For days, it was mayhem in the state capital as students torched vehicles and the police resorted to lathicharge, hurling stun grenades even at the AKG Centre, the CPI(M) state headquarters at Thiruvananthapuram. "Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who holds the Home portfolio, will have to explain the assault on our party office," says Opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan. The aggro on the streets apart, the Left is in a buoyant mood. The record-breaking victories in the by-polls seem to have convinced the CPI(M) that it is just a whisker away from returning to power.

The comrades can't be blamed for their great expectations. It is a crumbling house that Chennithala is heading. On July 5, nine Congress MLAs resigned from the legislature and joined veteran leader K. Karunakaran's newly floated party, National Congress (Indira), reducing the UDF's strength but not affecting its majority. Chandy still enjoys the support of 85 MLAs in the 140-member House.

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HANDS ON: Chennithala (centre)

Chennithala's problems do not stop at the political. The Syrian Orthodox Church has turned against the Congress. In an unprecedented turn of events, Catholicos Mar Baselios Thomas I, the 77-year-old head of the Jacobite Syrian faction of the Malankara Church, pitched a tent and went on a fast unto death, alleging that the Government was trying to "appease" the Orthodox faction to which, incidentally, the chief minister belongs. The repercussions of this fight may be visible in the next polls.

Even as he wades through the problems of the church and the state, the KPCC chief is busy charting out his agenda: stop the Left ambush. "We will build public opinion against the CPI(M)'s violent politic," says Chennithala. But will his anti-CPI(M) line be blocked by Sonia Gandhi who needs the support of the Reds for the survival of the UPA Government at the Centre? "Soniaji has said that in three states our main enemy is the CPI(M). It need not affect our relations in Delhi," says Chennithala. "I am asked to go all out against the Left." That's something to give Manmohan Singh, if not the Marxists, sleepless nights.

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