FAMILY TIME: General secretary Prakash Karat with wife and politburo member Brinda.

New Delhi, April 24: What’s the best way to deal with family squabbles? Organise get-togethers.

The faction-riven Kerala CPM is doing exactly that in the hope that estranged comrades can feel like comrades again.

And their lost-and-found camaraderie will wipe off the wounds of disunity.

“It’s like a family get-together,” said a state CPM leader.

Such meetings, the leader added, have been organised in the past, though before important events like general elections.

The get-togethers, sources said, have already started and would continue till May 18.

Leaders have been told to make sure that at least 1,500 members attend each meeting. Even members of the politburo, the party’s highest decision-making body, have been asked to attend the reunions, organised by local committees.

The party’s assessment is that the intense rivalry between state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan has impacted the CPM in a big way, as the differences have percolated down to the families of local leaders.

So family meetings, the party thinks, would help bring the comradeship back among the comrades.

But faction rivalry isn’t the sole worry for the party. There have been instances of family members of leaders joining other parties. There have also been complaints of relatives of local leaders not being friendly enough with other workers.

Sources said the whole idea behind the get-togethers was to create a family atmosphere through dinners and cultural programmes by children of party workers.

Speeches would be kept to a minimum and would only deal with themes like achievements of the three-year-old Achuthanandan government, the party’s role in resisting neo-liberal polices and decisions taken at the 19th party congress in Coimbatore.

The speakers would also make workers aware of the need to “maintain discipline” when it comes to talking about party activities to the media.

The workers would be free to clarify all their doubts with the leaders present. “After all, we work as a big family,” said the state leader.