Barely 24 hours after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan brokered a fragile ceasefire over the PM SHRI school scheme, Kerala’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) plunged back into open warfare on October 31, 2025, in Thiruvananthapuram. CPM heavyweight and General Education Minister V Sivankutty unleashed a blistering broadside against CPI cabinet colleague G R Anil, CPI central secretariat member K Prakash Babu, and the party’s youth wings AIYF and AISF, branding their remarks “objectionable,” “belittling,” and “communal.” The tirade shattered the veneer of unity stitched together on Wednesday, when Vijayan announced a seven-member cabinet subcommittee to placate CPI’s fears of central overreach in state education.

Sivankutty’s fury zeroed in on a closed-door meeting at the CPI state office, where he had arrived to negotiate with state secretary Binoy Viswam. According to the minister, Food & Civil Supplies Minister G R Anil—a cabinet ally for decades—leaked derogatory comments to the media, sneering that “some insignificant person” had wandered in. “He spoke as if a nobody walked into their office,” Sivankutty fumed to reporters. He also slammed Prakash Babu for calling CPM general secretary M A Baby “helpless” in the PM SHRI standoff, labeling the phrase “totally unacceptable.” The youth wings earned special scorn: Sivankutty accused AIYF and AISF of “overstepping all limits” by painting him as “communal”—a charge he dismissed as an assault on his lifelong leftist credentials.

The backlash was swift but uneven. Prakash Babu telephoned M A Baby personally to express regret, while AIYF issued a formal apology to Sivankutty—signs that CPI’s top brass had cracked the whip on its rank and-file. G R Anil, however, played innocent: “I’m surprised. We’ve known each other since student politics—I’ve never used offensive words against anyone.” Yet the damage was done. The PM SHRI row—sparked when Sivankutty’s department signed an MoU with the Centre without full LDF consensus—had already strained the coalition; Thursday’s flare-up proved the truce was paper-thin.

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At stake is more than egos: the PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India) scheme mandates infrastructure upgrades and central branding for 14,000 schools nationwide, including 2,000 in Kerala. CPI fears it’s a Trojan horse for saffronization and privatization; CPM insists safeguards are in place. Vijayan’s subcommittee—comprising Sivankutty, Anil, Finance Minister K N Balagopal, and four others—was meant to thread the needle. But with ministers now trading barbs in public, the panel’s first meeting (slated for next week) risks becoming a gladiatorial arena rather than a reconciliation chamber.

As Kerala’s classrooms watch nervously, the LDF’s internal combustion threatens to eclipse its anti-BJP narrative. With local body polls looming in 2026 and national alliances in flux, Pinarayi Vijayan faces his toughest balancing act yet: keeping the red flag flying while preventing his own camp from burning it down. For now, the “truce” is just another four-letter word in Thiruvananthapuram’s political dictionary.

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