Communist party of India - Wikipedia Communist party of India Not to be confused with Communist Party of India ( Maoist ) or Communist Party of India ( Maoist ). Communist Party of India Abbreviation CPI Secretary - General S. Sudhakar Reddy Lok Sabha leader C.N. Jayadevan Rajya Sabha leader D. Raja Founded 26 December 1925 ; 92 years ago ( 1925 - 12 - 26 ) Headquarters Indrajit Gupta Marg, New Delhi, India - 110002 Newspaper New Age ( English ) Mukti Sangharsh ( Hindi ) Student wing All India Students Federation Youth wing All India Youth Federation Women 's wing National Federation of Indian Women Labour wing All India Trade Union Congress and Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union Peasant 's wing All India Kisan Sabha ( Ajoy Bhavan ) Ideology Communism Marxism -- Leninism Political position Left - wing to Far - left International affiliation International Meeting of Communist and Workers ' Parties Colours Red ECI Status National Party Alliance Left Front ( West Bengal ), Left Front ( Tripura ), Left Democratic Front ( Kerala ) National convener S. Sudhakar Reddy Seats in Lok Sabha 1 / 545 ( currently 540 members + 1 Speaker ) Seats in Rajya Sabha 1 / 245 Seats in 19 / 140 ( Kerala Legislative Assembly ( 2016 ) ) 1 / 294 ( West Bengal Legislative Assembly 2016 ) Election symbol Website www.communistparty.in Politics of India Political parties Elections Part of a series on Communism in India Personalities M.P.T. Acharya Abani Mukherji M.N. Roy P. Krishna Pillai Puran Chand Joshi A.K. Gopalan Ajoy Ghosh Puchalapalli Sundaraiah Bhupesh Gupta B.T. Ranadive Shibdas Ghosh E.M.S. Namboodiripad Charu Majumdar T. Nagi Reddy Saroj Dutta Kondapalli Seetharamaiah E.K. Nayanar Geeta Mukherjee Mohit Sen Indrajit Gupta Vinod Mishra Ganapathy Harkishan Singh Surjeet Jyoti Basu V.S. 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There are different views on exactly when it was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by the CPI is 26 December 1925. The Communist Party of India ( Marxist ), which separated from the CPI, believes it was founded in 1925. Contents 1 History 1.1 Formation 1.2 Involvement in independence struggle 1.3 After independence 2 Present situation 3 Notable leaders 4 Lok Sabha election tally 5 State election results 6 Party Congress 7 See also 8 Footnotes 9 Further reading 10 External links History Formation The Communist Party of India has officially stated that it was formed on 26 December 1920 at the first Party Conference in Kanpur. But as per the version of CPI ( M ), the Communist Party of India was founded in Tashkent, Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 17 October 1920, soon after the Second Congress of the Communist International. The founding members of the party were M.N. Roy, Evelyn Trent Roy ( Roy 's wife ), Abani Mukherji, Rosa Fitingof ( Abani 's wife ), Mohammad Ali ( Ahmed Hasan ), Mohammad Shafiq Siddiqui, Rafiq Ahmed of Bhopal and M.P.B.T. Aacharya, and Sultan Ahmed Khan Tarin of North - West Frontier Province. The CPI says that there were many communist groups formed by Indians with the help of foreigners in different parts of the world and the Tashkent group was only one of. contacts with Anushilan and Jugantar groups in Bengal. Small communist groups were formed in Bengal ( led by Muzaffar Ahmed ), Bombay ( led by S.A. Dange ), Madras ( led by Singaravelu Chettiar ), United Provinces ( led by Shaukat Usmani ) and Punjab and Sindh ( led by Ghulam Hussain ). However, only Usmani became a CPI party member. Involvement in independence struggle During the 1920s and the early 1930s the party was badly organised, and in practice there were several communist groups working with limited national coordination. The British colonial authorities had banned all communist activity, which made the task of building a united party very difficult. Between 1921 and 1924 there were three conspiracy trials against the communist movement ; First Peshawar Conspiracy Case, Meerut Conspiracy Case and the kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. In the first three cases, Russian - trained muhajir communists were put on trial. However, the Cawnpore trial had more political impact. On 17 March 1924, M.N. Roy, S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain and R.C. Sharma were charged, in Cawnpore ( now spelt Kanpur ) Bolshevik Conspiracy case. The specific pip charge was that they as communists were seeking `` to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from imperialistic Britain by a violent revolution. '' Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned, on such a large scale, about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India. Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness. M.N. Roy was in Germany and R.C. Sharma in French Pondichéry, and therefore could not be arrested. Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians in Kabul and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani and Dange were sentenced for various terms of imprisonment. This case was responsible for actively introducing communism to a larger Indian audience. Dange was released from prison in 1927. Rahul Dev Pal was a prominent communist leader On 25 December 1925 a communist conference was organised in Kanpur. Colonial authorities estimated that 500 persons took part in the conference. The conference was convened by a man called Satyabhakta. At the conference Satyabhakta argued for a ' National communism ' and against subordination under Comintern. Being outvoted by the other delegates, Satyabhakta left the conference venue in protest. The conference adopted the name ' Communist Party of India '. Groups such as Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan ( LKPH ) dissolved into the unified CPI. The émigré CPI, which probably had little organic character anyway, was effectively substituted by the organisation now operating inside India. Soon after the 1926 conference of the Workers and Peasants Party of Bengal, the underground CPI directed its members to join the provincial Workers and Peasants Parties. All open communist activities were carried out through Workers and Peasants Parties. The sixth congress of the Communist International met in 1928. In 1927 the Kuomintang had turned on the Chinese communists, which led to a review of the policy on forming alliances with the national bourgeoisie in the colonial countries. The Colonial theses of the 6th Comintern congress called upon the Indian communists to combat the ' national - reformist leaders ' and to ' unmask the national reformism of the Indian National Congress and oppose all phrases of the Swarajists, Gandhists, etc. about passive resistance '. The congress did however differentiate between the character of the Chinese Kuomintang and the Indian Swarajist Party, considering the latter as neither a reliable ally nor a direct enemy. The congress called on the Indian communists to utilize the contradictions between the national bourgeoisie and the British imperialists. The congress also denounced the WPP. The Tenth Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 3 July 1929 -- 19 July 1929, directed the Indian communists to break with WPP. When the communists deserted it, the WPP fell apart. Portrait of 25 of Meerut Prisoners taken outside the jail. Backrow : ( left to right ) K.N. Sehgal, S.S. Josh, H.L. Hutchinson, Shaukat Usmani, B.F. Bradly, A. Prasad, Philip Spratt, and G. Adhikari. Middle Row : K.R. Mitra, Gopan Chakravarthy, Kishore Lal Ghosh, K.L. Kadam, D.R. Thengdi, Goura Shanker, S. Banerjee, K.N. Joglekar, Puran Chand Joshi, and Muzaffar Ahmed. Front Row : M.G. Desai, G. Goswami, R.S. Nimkar, S.S. Mirajkar, S.A. Dange, G.V. Ghate and Gopal Basak. On 20 March 1929, arrests against WPP, CPI and other labour leaders were made in several parts of India, in what became known as the Meerut Conspiracy Case. The communist leadership was now put behind bars. The trial proceedings were to last for four years. As of 1934, the main centres of activity of CPI were Bombay, Calcutta and Punjab. The party had also begun extending its activities to Madras. A group of Andhra and Tamil students, amongst them P. Sundarayya, were recruited to the CPI by Amir Hyder Khan. The party was reorganised in 1933, after the communist leaders from the Meerut trials were released. A central committee of the party was set up. In 1934 the party was accepted as the Indian section of the Communist International. When Indian leftwing elements formed the Congress Socialist Party in 1934, the CPI branded it as Social Fascist. The League Against Gandhism, initially known as the Gandhi Boycott Committee, was a political organisation in Calcutta, founded by the underground Communist Party of India and others to launch militant anti-Imperialist activities. The group took the name ' League Against Gandhism ' in 1934. In connection with the change of policy of the Comintern toward Popular Front politics, the Indian communists changed their relation to the Indian National Congress. The communists joined the Congress Socialist Party, which worked as the left wing of Congress. Through joining CSP, the CPI accepted the CSP demand for a Constituent Assembly, which it had denounced two years before. The CPI however analysed that the demand for a Constituent Assembly would not be a substitute for soviets. In July 1937, the first Kerala unit of CPI was founded at a clandestine meeting in Calicut. Five persons were present at the meeting, P. Krishna Pillai E.M.S. Namboodiripad, N.C. Sekhar, K. Damodaran and S.V. Ghate. The first four were members of the CSP in Kerala. The latter, Ghate, was a CPI Central Committee member, who had arrived from Madras. Contacts between the CSP in Kerala and the CPI had begun in 1935, when P. Sundarayya ( CC member of CPI, based in Madras at the time ) met with EMS and Krishna Pillai. Sundarayya and Ghate visited Kerala at several times and met with the CSP leaders there. The contacts were facilitated through the national meetings of the Congress, CSP and All India Kisan Sabha. In 1936 -- 1937, the cooperation between socialists and communists reached its peak. At the 2nd congress of the CSP, held in Meerut in January 1936, a thesis was adopted which declared that there was a need to build ' a united Indian Socialist Party based on Marxism - Leninism '. At the 3rd CSP congress, held in Faizpur, several communists were included into the CSP National Executive Committee. In Kerala communists won control over CSP, and for a brief period controlled Congress there. Two communists, E.M.S. Namboodiripad and Z.A. Ahmed, became All India joint secretaries of CSP. The CPI also had two other members inside the CSP executive. On the occasion of the 1940 Ramgarh Congress Conference CPI released a declaration called Proletarian Path, which sought to utilise the weakened state of the British Empire in the time of war and gave a call for general strike, no - tax, no - rent policies and mobilising for an armed revolutionary uprising. The National Executive of the CSP assembled at Ramgarh took a decision that all communists were expelled from CSP. In July 1942, the CPI was legalised, as a result of Britain and the Sov iet Union becoming allies against Nazi Germany. Communists strengthened their control over the All India Trade Union Congress. At the same time, communists were politically cornered for their opposition to the Quit India Movement. CPI contested the Provincial Legislative Assembly elections of 1946 of its own. It had candidates in 108 out of 1585 seats. It won in eight seats. In total the CPI vote counted 666 723, which should be seen with the backdrop that 86 % of the adult population of India lacked voting rights. The party had contested three seats in Bengal, and won all of them. One CPI candidate, Somanth Lahiri, was elected to the Constituent Assembly. After independence During the period around and directly following Independence in 1947, the internal situation in the party was chaotic. The party shifted rapidly between left - wing and right - wing positions. In February 1948, at the 2nd Party Congress in Calcutta, B.T. Ranadive ( BTR ) was elected General Secretary of the party. The conference adopted the ' Programme of Democratic Revolution '. This programme included the first mention of struggle against caste injustice in a CPI document. In several areas the party led armed struggles against a series of local monarchs that were reluctant to give up their power. Such insurgencies took place in Tripura, Telangana and Kerala. The most important rebellion took place in Telangana, against the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Communists built up a people 's army and militia and controlled an area with a population of three million. The rebellion was brutally crushed and the party abandoned the policy of armed struggle. BTR was deposed and denounced as a ' left adventurist '. In Manipur, the party became a force to reckon with through the agrarian struggles led by Jananeta Irawat Singh. Singh had joined CPI in 1946. At the 1951 congress of the party, ' People 's Democracy ' was substituted by ' National Democracy ' as the main slogan of the party. Communist Party was founded in Bihar in 1939. Post independence, communist party achieved success in Bihar ( Bihar and Jharkhand ). Communist party conducted movements for land reform, trade union movement was at its peak in Bihar in the sixties, seventies and eighties. Achievement of communists in Bihar placed the communist party in the forefront of left movement in India. Bihar produced some of the legendary leaders like Kishan leaders Sahjanand Saraswati and Karyanand Sharma, intellectual giants like Jagannath Sarkar, Yogendra Sharma and Indradeep Sinha, mass leaders like Chandrashekhar Singh and Sunil Mukherjee, Trade Union leaders like Kedar Das and others. It was in Bihar that JP 's total revolution was exposed and communist party under the leadership of Jagannath Sarkar fought Total Revolution and exposed its hollowness. `` Many Streams '' Selected Essays by Jagannath Sarkar and Reminiscing Sketches, Compiled by Gautam Sarkar, Edited by Mitali Sarkar, First Published : May 2010, Navakaranataka Publications Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore. In the Mithila region of Bihar Bhogendra Jha led the fight against the Mahants and Zamindars. He later went on the win Parliamentary elections and was MP for seven terms. In early 1950s young communist leadership was uniting textile workers, bank employees and unorganized sector workers to ensure mass support in north India. National leaders like SA Dange, Chandra Rajeswara Rao and PK Vasudevan Nair were encouraging them and supporting the idea despite their differences on the execution. Firebrand Communist leaders like Homi F Dazi, Guru Radha Kishan, HL Parwana, Sarjoo Pandey, Darshan Singh Canadian and Avtaar Singh Malhotra were emerging between the masses and the working class in particular. This was the first leadership of communists that was very close to the masses and people consider them champions of the cause of the workers and the poor. In Delhi, May Day ( majdoor diwas or mai diwas ) was organised at Chandni Chowk Ghantaghar in such a manner that demonstrates the unity between all the factions of working classes and ignite the passion for communist movement in the northern part of India. In 1952, CPI became the first leading opposition party in the Lok Sabha, while the Indian National Congress was in power. ( Note - At this time, there was no CPI ( M ) and both were united ) Communist movement or CPI in particular emerged as a front runner after Guru Radha Kishan undertook a fast unto death for 24 days to promote the cause of textile workers in Delhi. Till than it was a public misconception that communists are revolutionaries with arms in their hands and workers and their families were afraid to get associated with the communists but this act mobilised general public in the favour of communist movement as a whole. During this period people with their families used to visit ' dharna sthal ' to encourage CPI cadre. This model of selflessness for the society worked for the CPI far more than what was expected. This trend was followed by almost all other state units of the party in the Hindi heartland. Communist Party related trade union AITUC became a prominent force to unite the workers in textile, municipal and unorganised sectors, the first labour union in unorganised sector was also emerged in the leadership of Comrade Guru Radha Kishan during this period in Delhi 's Sadar Bazaar area. This movement of mass polarisation of workers in the favour of CPI worked effectively in Delhi and paved the way for great success of CPI in the elections in working class dominated areas in Delhi. Comrade Gangadhar Adhikari and E.M.S. Namboodiripad applauded this brigade of dynamic comrades for their selfless approach and organisational capabilities. This brigade of firebrand communists gained more prominence when Telangana hero Chandra Rajeswara Rao rose to be General Secretary of the Communist Party of India. In the Travancore - Cochin Legislative Assembly election, 1952, Communist Party was banned, so it could n't take part in the election process. In the general elections in 1957, the CPI emerged as the largest opposition party. In 1957, the CPI won the state elections in Kerala. This was the first time that an opposition party won control over an Indian state. E.M.S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister. At the 1957 international meeting of Communist parties in Moscow, the Communist Party of China directed criticism at the CPI for having formed a ministry in Kerala. Ideological differences lead to the split in the party in 1964 when two different party conferences were held, one of CPI and one of the Communist Party of India ( Marxist ). There is a common misconception that the rift during the Sino - Indian war, when Communist Party Of India proudly supported China in the war led to the 1962 split. In fact, the split was leftists vs rightists, rather than internationalists vs nationalists. The presence of nationalists in CPI, and internationalists P. Sundarayya, Jyoti Basu, and Harkishan Singh Surjeet in the Communist Party of India ( Marxist ) proves this fact. During the period 1970 -- 77, CPI was allied with the Congress party. In Kerala, they formed a government together with Congress, with the CPI - leader C. Achutha Menon as Chief Minister. After the fall of the regime of Indira Gandhi, CPI reoriented itself towards cooperation with CPI ( M ). In 1986, the CPI 's leader in the Punjab and MLA in the Punjabi legislature Darshan Singh Canadian was assassinated by Sikh extremists. Then on 19 May 1987, Deepak Dhawan, General Secretary of Punjab CPI ( M ), was murdered. Altogether about 200 communist leaders out of which most were Sikhs were killed by Sikh extremists in Punjab. Present situation Communist party supporters during the Indian general elections, 2009. Mural in Thiruvananthapuram. CPI was recognized by the Election Commission of India as a ' National Party '. To date, CPI happens to be the only national political party from India to have contested all the general elections using the same electoral symbol. Owing to a massive defeat in Indian general election, 2014 where the party saw its tally reduce to 1 MP, the Election Commission of India has sent a letter to CPI asking for reasons why its national party status should not be revoked. If similar performance is repeated in the next election, the CPI will no longer be a national party. On the national level they supported the Indian National Congress - led United Progressive Alliance government along with other parliamentary Left parties, but without taking part in it. Upon attaining power in May 2004, the United Progressive Alliance formulated a programme of action known as the Common Minimum Programme. The Left bases its support to the UPA on strict adherence to it. Provisions of the CMP mentioned to discontinue disinvestment, massive social sector outlays and an independent foreign policy. On 8 July 2008, Prakash Karat, General Secretary of CPI ( M ) announced that the Left was withdrawing its support over the decision by the government to go ahead with the United States - India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act. The Left parties combination had been a staunch advocate of not proceeding with this deal citing national interests. In West Bengal it participates in the Left Front. It also participated in the state government in Manipur. In Kerala the party is part of Left Democratic Front. In Tripura the party is a partner of the Left Front, which governed the state till 2018. In Tamil Nadu it is part of the Progressive Democratic Alliance. It is involved in the Left Democratic Front in Maharashtra The current general secretary of CPI is S. Sudhakar Reddy. The principal mass organisations of the CPI are : All India Trade Union Congress All India Youth Federation All India Students Federation National Federation of Indian Women All India Kisan Sabha ( peasants organisation ) Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union ( agricultural workers ) All India State Government Employees Federation ( State government employees ) Notable leaders N.E. Balaram - Founding leader of the communist movement in Kerala, India Mohit Banerji ( Mohit Bandopadhay ) ( 1912 -- 1961 ) M.N. Govindan Nair -- Kerala state general secretary during the first communist ministry and a freedom fighter C. Achutha Menon -- Finance minister in first Kerala ministry later chief minister T.V. Thomas -- Minister in first Kerala ministry M. Kalyanasundaram -- Tamil Nadu P.K. Vasudevan Nair -- Ex. Chief minister of Kerala Indrajit Gupta -- Parliamentarian, former general secretary and a former central minister Bhupesh Gupta -- Parliamentarian Ajoy Ghosh -- Last general secretary of unified CPI, freedom fighter Chandra Rajeswara Rao -- former general secretary, Telangana freedom fighter Jagannath Sarkar -- former National Secretary, freedom fighter, builder of communist movement in Bihar and Jharkhand Geeta Mukherjee - Parliamentarian & Former President of National Federation of Indian Women Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan -- former general secretary Chaturanan Mishra parliamentarian & former Central Minister of India Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy -- current general secretary of the party D. Raja -- parliamentarian & secretary of the party Shripad Amrit Dange -- Freedom fighter & former chairman of the party Hijam Irabot -- Founder leader of CPI in Manipur P.S. Sreenivasan -- Former minister of Kerala C.K. Chandrappan -- Parliamentarian & former Kerala state secretary of the party Pannyan Raveendran -- Former Kerala state secretary of the party Kanam Rajendran -- Current Kerala state secretary of the party Nallakannu -- Parliamentarian & former Tamil Nadu state secretary of the party D. Pandian - Parliamentarian & former Tamil Nadu state secretary Binoy Viswam -- Former minister in the Government of Kerala Thoppil Bhasi -- Writer, film director & parliamentarian Puran Chand Joshi -- first general secretary of the Communist Party of India Veliyam Bharghavan -- Parliamentarian & Former Kerala state secretary of the party E. Chandrasekharan Nair -- Senior leader and Former Minister in the Government of Kerala Ramendra Kumar -- Former Parliamentarian, national executive member, national president AITUC Meghraj Tawar -- Udaipur district secretary Govind Pansare -- Prominent activist and lawyer R. Sugathan - Prominent trade unionist, mass leader and member of Kerala Legislative assembly DR. Bhalchandra Kango - Central Secretariat and National Executive and Former Maharashtra state secretary of the party Lok Sabha election tally Performance of Communist Party of India in Lok Sabha elections Lok Sabha Year Lok Sabha constituencies Seats Contested Won Net Change in seats Votes Votes % Change in vote % Reference First 1952 489 49 16 - 34, 87,401 3.29 % - Second 1957 494 109 27 11 1, 07, 54,075 8.92 % 5.63 % Third 1962 494 137 29 02 1, 14, 50,037 9.94 % 1.02 % Fourth 1967 520 109 23 06 74, 58,396 5.11 % 4.83 % Fifth 1971 518 87 23 00 69, 33,627 4.73 % 0.38 % Sixth 1977 542 91 7 16 53, 22,088 2.82 % 1.91 % Seventh 1980 529 ( 542 ) 47 10 03 49, 27,342 2.49 % 0.33 % Eighth 1984 541 66 6 04 67, 33,117 2.70 % 0.21 % Ninth 529 50 12 06 77, 34,697 2.57 % 0.13 % Tenth 1991 534 43 14 02 68, 98,340 2.48 % 0.09 % Eleventh 543 43 12 02 65, 82,263 1.97 % 0.51 % Twelfth 1998 543 58 09 03 64, 29,569 1.75 % 0.22 % Thirteenth 1999 543 54 04 05 53, 95,119 1.48 % 0.27 % Fourteenth 543 34 10 06 54, 84,111 1.41 % 0.07 % Fifteenth 2009 543 56 04 06 59, 51,888 1.43 % 0.02 % Sixteenth 2014 543 67 01 03 43, 27,298 0.78 % 0.65 % : 12 seats in Assam and 1 in Meghalaya did not vote. State No. of candidates 2014 No. of elected 2014 No. of candidates 2009 No. of elected 2009 Total no. of seats in the state Andhra Pradesh 0 0 ( 25 ) ( 2014 ) / 42 ( 2009 ) Arunachal Pradesh 0 0 0 0 Assam 0 0 14 Bihar 0 7 0 40 Chhattisgarh 0 0 11 Goa 0 0 Gujarat 0 0 26 Haryana 0 0 10 Himachal Pradesh 0 0 0 0 Jammu and Kashmir 0 0 0 6 Jharkhand 0 0 14 Karnataka 0 0 28 Kerala 0 20 Madhya Pradesh 5 0 0 29 Maharashtra 0 0 48 Manipur 0 0 Meghalaya 0 0 Mizoram 0 0 0 0 Nagaland 0 0 0 0 Odisha 0 21 Punjab 5 0 0 13 Rajasthan 0 0 25 Sikkim 0 0 0 0 Tamil Nadu 8 0 39 Tripura 0 0 0 0 Uttar Pradesh 8 0 9 0 80 Uttarakhand 0 0 5 West Bengal 0 42 Union Territories : Andaman and Nicobar Islands 0 0 0 0 Chandigarh 0 0 0 0 Dadra and Nagar Haveli 0 0 0 0 Daman and Diu 0 0 0 0 Delhi 0 0 7 Lakshadweep 0 0 0 Puducherry 0 0 0 Total : 67 56 543 State election results State No. of candidates No. elected Total no. of seats in Assembly Year of Election Andhra Pradesh 38 294 2014 Assam 15 0 126 2016 Bihar 98 0 243 2015 Chhattisgarh 13 0 90 2013 Delhi 5 0 70 2015 Goa 0 40 2017 Gujarat 0 182 2012 Haryana 14 0 90 2014 Himachal Pradesh 6 0 68 2012 Jammu and Kashmir 0 87 2014 Jharkhand 24 0 81 2014 Karnataka 8 0 224 2013 Kerala 25 19 140 2016 Madhya Pradesh 23 0 230 2013 Maharashtra 33 0 288 2014 Manipur 6 0 60 2017 Meghalaya 0 60 2013 Mizoram 0 0 40 2013 Odisha 32 0 147 2014 Puducherry 7 0 30 2016 Punjab 23 0 117 2017 Rajasthan 23 0 200 2013 Tamil Nadu 25 0 234 2016 Tripura 0 60 2018 Uttar Pradesh 68 0 403 2017 Uttarakhand 0 70 2017 West Bengal 11 294 2016 Results from the Election Commission of India website. Results do not deal with partitions of states ( Bihar was bifurcated after the 2000 election, creating Jharkhand ), defections and by - elections during the mandate period. Party Congress Party Congress Year Place 1943 May 28 June 1 Bombay 1948 Feb 28 March 27 Culcutta 1953 December 27 January 4 Madhura 1956 April 19 to 29 Palakkad 5 1958 April 6 to 13 Amritsar 6 1961 April 7 to 16 Vijayawada 7 1964 Dec 13 - 23 Bombay 8 1968 February 7 -- 15 Patna 9 1971 Oct Kochin 10 1975 Jan 27 - Feb 2 Vijayawada 11 1978 March 31 - April 7 Battinda 12 1982 March 22 to 28 Varanasi 13 1986 March 2 to 17 Patna 14 1989 March 6 -- 12 Culcutta 15 1992 April 10 to 16 Hyderabad 16 1995 October Delhi 17 1998 Sept 14 - 19 Chennai 18 2002 March 26 to 31 Thiruvananthapuram 19 2005 March 29 0 April 3 Chandigarh 20 2008 March 23 -- 27 Hyderabad 21 2012 March 27 -- 31 Patna 22 2015 March 25 -- 29 Pondicherry 23 2018 April 25 -- 29 Kollam See also See also : List of political parties in India, Politics of India, List of communist parties Calcutta Thesis Communist Ghadar Party of India Communist Party of Bangladesh Indian Communist Party ( Sen ) Darshan Singh Canadian Malayapuram Singaravelu Chettiar SA Dange Indrajit Gupta Guru Radha Kishan Azhikodan Raghavan Jagannath Sarkar Manikuntala Sen Pandit Karyanand Sharma Chandrashekhar Singh Indradeep Sinha Marxist League ( India ) Footnotes Jump up ^ `` List of Political Parties and Election Symbols main Notification Dated 18.01. 2013 '' ( PDF ). India : Election Commission of India. 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013. Jump up ^ `` Members : Lok Sabha ''. loksabha.nic.in. Lok Sabha Secretariat. Retrieved 31 May 2018. Jump up ^ `` Brief History of CPI - CPI ''. Jump up ^ Later arrested, tried and sentenced to hard labour in the Moscow - Peshawar Conspiracy Case in 1922 ; see NWFP and Punjab Government Intelligence Reports, Vols 2 and 3, 1921 - 1931, at the IOR, British Library, London, UK Jump up ^ M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front -- Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad : Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 88 - 89 Jump up ^ Ganguly, Basudev. S.A. Dange -- A Living Presence at the Centenary Year in Banerjee, Gopal ( ed. ) S.A. Dange -- A Fruitful Life. Calcutta : Progressive Publishers, 2002. p. 63. Jump up ^ M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front -- Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad : Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 89 ^ Jump up to : Ralhan, O.P. ( ed. ) Encyclopedia of Political Parties New Delhi : Anmol Publications p. 336, Rao. p. 89 - 91 Jump up ^ `` Historical Moments in Kanpur ''. Jump up ^ M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front -- Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad : Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 92 - 93 Jump up ^ M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front -- Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad : Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 111 ^ Jump up to : Saha, Murari Mohan ( ed. ), Documents of the Revolutionary Socialist Party : Volume One 1938 -- 1947. Agartala : Lokayata Chetana Bikash Society, 2001. p. 21 - 25 Jump up ^ M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front -- Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad : Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 47 - 48 Jump up ^ M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front -- Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad : Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 97 - 98, 111 -- 112 Jump up ^ Ralhan, O.P. ( ed. ). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties -- India -- Pakistan -- Bangladesh -- National - Regional -- Local. Vol. 23. Revolutionary Movements ( 1930 -- 1946 ). New Delhi : Anmol Publications, 2002. p. 689 - 691 Jump up ^ M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front -- Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad : Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 96 ^ Jump up to : E.M.S. Namboodiripad. The Communist Party in Kerala -- Six Decades of Struggle and Advance. New Delhi : National Book Centre, 1994. p. 7 Jump up ^ Surjeet, Harkishan Surjeet. March of the Communist Movement in India -- An Introduction to the Documents of the History of the Communist Movement in India. Calcutta : National Book Agency, 1998. p. 25 Jump up ^ Roy Subodh, Communism in India -- Unpublished Documents 1925 - 1934. Calcutta : National Book Agency, 1998. p. 338 - 339, 359 - 360 ^ Jump up to : Roy, Samaren. M.N. Roy : A Political Biography. Hyderabad : Orient Longman, 1998. p. 113, 115 Jump up ^ E.M.S. Namboodiripad. The Communist Party in Kerala -- Six Decades of Struggle and Advance. New Delhi : National Book Centre, 1994. p. 6 Jump up ^ E.M.S. Namboodiripad. The Communist Party in Kerala -- Six Decades of Struggle and Advance. New Delhi : National Book Centre, 1994. p. 44 Jump up ^ E.M.S. Namboodiripad. The Communist Party in Kerala -- Six Decades of Struggle and Advance. New Delhi : National Book Centre, 1994. p. 45 Jump up ^ Ralhan, O.P. ( ed. ). Encyclopedia of Political Parties -- India -- Pakistan -- Bangladesh -- National - Regional -- Local. Vol. 24. Socialist Movement in India. New Delhi : Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 82 Jump up ^ Surjeet, Harkishan Surjeet. March of the Communist Movement in India -- An Introduction to the Documents of the History of the Communist Movement in India. Calcutta : National Book Agency, 1998. p. 55 Jump up ^ M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front -- Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. 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Jump up ^ `` BSP, NCP and CPI may lose national party status ''. hindustantimes.com/. 2014 - 08 - 11. Retrieved 2017 - 11 - 25. Jump up ^ `` Reprieve for BSP, CPI as EC amends rules ''. The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 2016 - 08 - 23. ISSN 0971 - 751X. Retrieved 2017 - 11 - 25. Jump up ^ `` EC might strip national party status from BSP, NCP, CPI ''. www.oneindia.com. Retrieved 2017 - 11 - 25. Jump up ^ ( 1 ) Jump up ^ `` Lok Sabha Elections 2009 '' ( PDF ). Jump up ^ `` Lok Sabha Elections 2014 '' ( PDF ). Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1951 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 70. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 8 October 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1957 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 49. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1962 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 75. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1967 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 78. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1971 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 79. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1977 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 89. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1980 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 86. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1984 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 81. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1985 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 15. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1989 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 88. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1991 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 58. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1992 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 13. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1996 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 93. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1998 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 93. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 1999 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 92. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS Statistical Report : 2004 Vol. 1 '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 101. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS 2009 : Performance of National Parties '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` LS 2014 : List of successful candidates '' ( PDF ). Election Commission of India. p. 93. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Jump up ^ `` Seventh Lok Sabha elections ( 1980 ) ''. Indian Express. Indian Express. 14 March 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014. Further reading N.E. Balaram, A Short History of the Communist Party of India. Kozikkode, Cannanore, India : Prabhath Book House, 1967. John H. Kautsky, Moscow and the Communist Party of India : A Study in the Postwar Evolution of International Communist Strategy. New York : MIT Press, 1956. M.R. Masani, The Communist Party of India : A Short History. New York : Macmillan, 1954. Samaren Roy, The Twice - Born Heretic : M.N. Roy and the Comintern. Calcutta : Firma KLM Private, 1986. Wendy Singer, `` Peasants and the Peoples of the East : Indians and the Rhetoric of the Comintern, '' in Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe, International Communism and the Communist International, 1919 - 43. Manchester : Manchester University Press, 1998. G. Adhikari ( ed. ), Documents of the History of the Communist Party of India : Volume One, 1917 - 1922. New Delhi : People 's Publishing House, 1971. G. Adhikari ( ed. ), Documents of the History of the Communist Party of India : Volume Two, 1923 - 1925. New Delhi : People 's Publishing House, 1974. V.B. Karnick ( ed. ), Indian Communist Party Documents, 1930 - 1956. Bombay : Democratic Research Service / Institute of Public Relations, 1957. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Communist Party of India. 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Question: who is considered the founder of communist ideology in india
Answer: N.E. Balaram