Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's ruling Marxists have not stopped fighting among themselves, that too at the highest level, even after being in office for seven months.
Without doubt 2006 belonged to 83-year-old Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, who pulled off a surprise coup by fighting his way into the electoral battle and then becoming the head of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
But factionalism in the CPI-M has only reached new levels. It remains to be seen who will have the last laugh in 2007.
Given the way Achuthanandan rose like a phoenix from virtual retirement to occupy the chief minister's post in May last year, things have not gone quite the way he would have wanted to.
His rival and CPI-M state secretary Pinnarayi Vijayan has slowly gone on to have a domineering say in the party, causing Achuthanandan heartburn.
Vijayan and his men have been breathing down Achuthanandan's neck, embarrassing the government.
The first setback for Achuthanandan happened soon after he assumed office when he lost the influential home portfolio. Under pressure, it was given to Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the closest aide of Vijayan.
Since then, the two factions have on and off been trying to undercut each other, now succeeding and now failing but all the time making a mockery of the CPI-M's passion for discipline.
"Isn't it quite clear that there are two power centres in Kerala? One which is headed by Achuthanandan and the other headed by Vijayan?" asked Kerala Congress chief Ramesh Chennithala. Many would agree with him.
The CPI-M politburo has been kept on tenterhooks in the process. Every time an issue develops in the Kerala wing, the politburo has to do damage control.
The latest issue to sent shockwaves in the party is the row over the second tranche of an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan.
Achuthanandan's statement pulling up his cabinet colleagues Paloly Mohammed Kutty (local self government) and Thomas Isaac (finance) for giving the nod for the ADB loan apparently without cabinet sanction sparked a strong response from Vijayan who virtually accused the chief minister of lying.
The onus is on the politburo to rein in Achuthanandan. Achuthanandan, who is a political veteran of six decades, also has a trump card — a controversial agreement a previous LDF government entered into with a Canadian company, SNC Lavlin, when Vijayan was the power minister. It is now seen as a corrupt deal.
Achuthanandan insists that the Canadian firm has to be blacklisted.
With the Kerala High Court looking into petitions demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the case, the Vijayan faction has hired legal luminaries from New Delhi to see that the demanded is thwarted. The Congress-led United Democratic Front is naturally enjoying the spectacle.
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