The latest blow was delivered by the CPI's lone member of the erstwhile Lok Sabha from Manipur, Kim Gangte, who quit earlier this week to join George Fernandes' Samata Party thus formalising her links with Rightist forces which first surfaced during the vote of confidence lost by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee.

While this has depressed CPI circles, the CPM too is in the process of an unhappy inquiry into a largescale revolt by its Kerala unit leaders who handed party general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet a serious snub a few weeks ago in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Gangte case is the most revealing. She was the crucial Left member who stayed away from the vote of confidence which Vajpayee lost by just one vote. Gangte's vote would have given the Opposition atwo-vote margin, much more comfortable than the one-vote victory which almost undid the anti-BJP camp's efforts.

Gangte had come very close to ensuring Vajpayee's continuance in power and therein lies a story. The CPI, which spent an embarrassing six hours before coming up with an ``alibi'', had claimed that Gangte was ill and was undergoing treatment in a hospital. This was probably why she couldn't make it for the vote.

Curiously, none of this purported illness was known to anyone before the fateful day. The illness story held ground till Gangte blew the cover. She announced in Imphal that she was joining Fernandes' Samata Party thus explaining why she stayed off from the Lok Sabha. She is now expected to contest the next election on a Samata Party ticket giving Fernandes a crucial toehold in the north-east.

Gangte's desertion has two morals for the beleaguered CPI. One, it reflects a growing disillusion at the party's ageing ideology which is failing to attract new recruits while depressing oldtimers with its stagnation. More importantly Gangte shifted to the Right, which the CPI can't accept.

Secondly, Gangte's defection reduces the CPI's presence in a whole state which has an important bearing on the party's status as a national party. Currently only six outfits in the country have a national status: Congress, BJP, CPM, CPI, Janata Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Of these, the CPI is closest to elimination from the top rungs, with the JD close behind.

The CPM too has its share of troubles. Party cadres have been restive ever since Surjeet outlined a pro-Congress line. In Kerala, this comes in the midst of a bitter battle between the CITU and other factions in the party.

For the last year or so, the CPM leadership has been forced to play the unhappy role of mediator in the Kerala infighting involving stalwarts like Politbureau members V.S. Achutanandan, E. Balanandan, Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar, former Left Front convenor M.M. Lawrence and current state party head P. Vijayan.

Recently,when Surjeet arrived in Thiruvananthapuram for the routine briefing of the central committee's deliberations (CPM general secretaries visit important states to brief leaders on the CC's discussions after crucial meetings in Delhi), he got the shock of his life. Of the 740-plus district and state-level leaders who were to attend Surjeet's briefing, barely 200-plus arrived.

The scale of the revolt jolted the CPM's high command and it quickly ordered an inquiry and asked the rebels why action shouldn't be taken against them. But this was no ordinary revolt: it was too big for comfort and it was questioning the general secretary's political wisdom.

Neither can the CPM expel people on such a scale, two-thirds of its leaders in Kerala, nor can it accept the rebellion. If it's any consolation, the CPI's outlook is equally gloomy.