At the 24th All India Party Congress on Sunday, veteran stalwart MA Baby was chosen as the CPM’s general secretary. Following in the footsteps of CPM mainstay EMS Namboodiripad, Baby, a former state minister, is the second leader from the party’s Kerala section to be elected to the top position.

Despite being from Kerala, Prakash Karat, the general secretary from 2005 to 2015, was a member of the Delhi chapter of the party. Additionally, Baby is the first member of a minority group to serve as general secretary of CPM.

Some politicians had supported Ashok Dhawale, the president of the All India Kisan Sabha, for the position. According to sources, Dhawale’s supporters were Ramchandra Dome, Mohd Salim, Nilotpal Basu, and Surya Kanta Mishra.

“The congress has chalked out a political line for the future, the organizational steps needed to take the party forward and, on that basis, it has elected a new leadership, a new Central Committee, a new Politburo and a new general secretary,” stated Karat, who was acting as interim coordinator in the lead-up to the congress after general secretary Sitaram Yechury passed away.