Kerala DYFI gets its first woman president as CPI-M faces crucial reset

Thrissur: The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the CPI-M, has for the first time in its history chosen a woman to lead its Kerala unit, with Chintha Jerome taking over as State President at a time when both the organisation and its parent party face the challenge of rebuilding their political stock.

Jerome, a Kollam native who rose through the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), was elected at the DYFI’s 16th State Conference that concluded in Thrissur.

DYFI’s All-India President A.A. Rahim announced the new leadership, with Kalliasseri MLA and former SFI State Secretary M. Vijin becoming State Secretary and R. Rahul taking over as Treasurer.

Jerome’s elevation comes with a considerable political baggage of her own.

A prominent student and youth leader, she has been at the centre of controversies over the years, including questions surrounding her doctoral thesis and public statements.

Yet her rise through the CPI-M’s organisational hierarchy has remained largely uninterrupted.

She is currently a member of both the DYFI Central Committee and the CPI-M State Committee and holds a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Kerala.

The new leadership also marks a missed opportunity for former Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran, who had been tipped for a prominent office in the new team.

Instead, she has been inducted into the 25-member State Secretariat.

Rajendran’s political trajectory itself offers a cautionary backdrop to the new leadership.

When she became Thiruvananthapuram Mayor in 2020 at a young age, the CPI-M projected her as a symbol of a new generation of leadership.

But controversies surrounding her tenure, including the highly publicised confrontation involving her and her husband, then CPI-M legislator K. Sachin Dev, with a KSRTC bus driver, dented that carefully cultivated image.

The Bharatiya Janata Party subsequently made a historic breakthrough in the 2025 local body polls, wresting control of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation from the CPI-M after more than four decades.

And at the Assembly polls, Sachin Dev lost the polls, but he has now been appointed as one of the four new vice-presidents of the newly constituted DYFI office bearers.

For much of the past decade, DYFI operated with a friendly political environment as the previous Pinarayi Vijayan government remained in power.

Its highly visible street protests often overshadowed its social and community initiatives, while several of its leaders moved on to important positions in the CPI-M.

Now, following the Left’s severe setback in the recently concluded Assembly elections, the organisation faces a different political landscape.

For Jerome and her new team, the challenge is no longer simply to mobilise the youth, it is to rebuild the credibility and political relevance of a movement whose parent party is itself searching for a way back.

IANS