New Delhi: cpm General Secretary MA Baby on Monday said it was wrong to oust the outgoing Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan To take moral responsibility for the defeat in the state after 10 years of government. His comments came after the CPM polit-buro meeting, in which the Kerala Assembly election results were discussed.Addressing reporters, Baby said, “Why should Pinarayi Vijayan be singled out to take the moral responsibility of the defeat in Kerala? Our party is a collective unit. He is the senior-most member in the Politburo and the Central Committee. When we went to the polls collectively we said that he is leading the campaign and if we get the majority then we will decide who will be the CM.”“No single comrade should be held responsible. We, the leadership, will assess the election results in detail, reach out to people at all levels in our organisation, look into the shortcomings and the role of the leadership collectively.” We will self-criticize and take corrective steps and implement the reform process.Baby’s comments assume significance as they come at a time when the election campaign around his governance and centralized leadership model, described as ‘Brand Pinarayi’, is facing criticism amid serious shocks in Kerala. However, the CPI(M) has been strongly denying all criticism and has stood firm on the view that there is no room for “cult politics” within the party and that the campaign was not a one-man show.Highlighting the overall impact of the assembly elections in four states and one Union Territory, Baby said the “dominance of right reaction forces” in most places except Tamil Nadu is something that secular and democratic forces need to take serious note of.In Kerala too, Baby said the LDF’s defeat was a serious blow to the Left and democratic forces. He said the LDF government had done a commendable job for 10 years in the face of “the vindictive attitude of the Central government, which tried to strangle the state government economically”.He said, “Why LDF had to suffer this setback in Kerala is a matter of grave concern. Another disturbing incident in Kerala was that BJP managed to win 3 seats and LDF stood second on these seats. This was worrying in a state like Kerala, which is very famous for its secular and democratic traditions.”He said the party’s Central Committee will meet from May 22-24 in which an in-depth analysis of the election results, including the setback in Kerala and the election-related situation in West Bengal, will be done.Describing Vijay’s TVK victory in Tamil Nadu as spectacular, Baby shared that CPM, CPI and other allies were able to take a very timely stand to ensure that horse-trading was stopped and the people’s verdict was respected.Asked why the CPM decided to extend outside support and not join the government in Tamil Nadu, Baby said, “We have 2 MLAs, CPI and VCK also have 2 MLAs each. We won these seats as part of the DMK front. Now it (TVK) is another political formation. The public’s verdict is in favor of TVK. In the current circumstances, political morality demands that it is not appropriate for us to take a decision now about joining the government.” The CPM general secretary also said that all three parties are invited to join the TN government.“As a party we believe that to be part of the government we need sufficient numbers to have our say,” he said. Therefore, we have justified our stand very logically. We are inside the democratic process but outside the government in Tamil Nadu.”To clarify that CPM puts its ideology and principles first, Baby reminded that in 1996 when the then West Bengal CM Jyoti Basu was offered the Prime Minister’s post, the party’s Central Committee had decided not to take up the Prime Minister’s post to lead the United Front government. The CPM then took the stance that the party felt that participating in a “bourgeois” coalition government at the Centre, without a majority of its own, would prevent them from implementing left-leaning policies.While many seniors, including then general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjit, supported Basu, a powerful radical faction within the party voted against the move. While Basu tacitly accepted the party’s decision at the time, he later described it as a “historical mistake” and a missed opportunity for Indian communists to influence national politics.