Wed Jan 01 14:22:10 UTC 2025: ## CPI(M) Seeks to Mend Fences with Nair Service Society Ahead of Kerala Elections

**Kottayam, Kerala, January 1, 2025** – The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] is actively courting the Nair Service Society [NSS], a powerful Hindu organization in Kerala, in a move seen as strategically important ahead of upcoming elections. This outreach follows years of strained relations, particularly after the 2018 Sabarimala women’s entry controversy.

The CPI(M)’s recent commemoration of the centenary of the Savarna Jatha, a historical march led by NSS founder Mannathu Padmanabhan, at the NSS headquarters in Perunna is a key example of this rapprochement. While ostensibly part of the party’s district conference preparations, the event’s location and focus are interpreted as a deliberate attempt to win favor with the NSS.

CPI(M) leaders claim the party is acknowledging the NSS’s long-standing complaints about the lack of recognition for Mannam’s contributions to Kerala’s social renaissance. They highlight recent visits by CPI(M) ministers to the NSS headquarters and the NSS’s more muted stance towards the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, particularly regarding the Sabarimala pilgrimage, as evidence of thawing relations.

The appointment of P.S. Prasanth, known for his close ties with the NSS, as president of the Travancore Devaswom Board is also viewed as a positive step. The CPI(M) further sees the NSS’s invitation to veteran Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala to inaugurate the Mannam Jayanti celebrations as a potential source of internal discord within the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF).

The CPI(M)’s ultimate goal is to secure a neutral stance from the NSS during the next elections, hoping that the organization’s recent silence during by-elections is a sign of things to come. The party’s efforts to mend this critical relationship are clearly a significant part of its electoral strategy.

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