While the communist party of India (marxist) , is not in power as of now , they have had history of winning elections, however there is a fatal flaw in their ideology , when it comes to fighting against opperession , while they agree upon existence of class disparity and want to work on the goal of removing it , the oldschool communists do not recognise caste system. For those who are not aware , caste system is a problem specific to indian subcontinent , it is like a dominant class of people who are called the upper castes ( tho in minority) , had deprived the lower castes , into not allowing them to get educated or get any other work that they were assigned at birth , by the family name they were born in . That kept the lower castes poor and deprived for ages. The CPI(M) is mostly flooded with the upper caste and do not recognise this systemetic opperssion that has been in place since ages !
You are confusing sole identity politics with Marxism . Recently a tribal leader of CPIM was murdered , did anyone of the so called bahujans send condolences to CPIM and protest against this murder ? No. CPIM necessarily doesn't have to fill up their ranks with OBC's/Dalits because CPIM itself doesn't work on espousing casteism like BJP , BJP has elected a tribal leader for president does that change the character of India itself . No . CPIM's top leadership comes from genuine class struggle and intense training and it doesn't have to do with specific identity. Sorry we won't elect people like Kavita krishnan in our party ranks who calls herself a Marxist then adores Timothy Snyder for being "anti stalin" and then supports Azov battalion to "free" Ukraine .
In a country like india , where casteism is high, even if there is class consciousness among the masses , I dont think the stigma against castes will go ! That way a certain section of the society will always be kept deprived! And while all bjp does is just for the namesake. No one is asking cpim to do a namesake show or elect all obc leaders for the sake of it , however along with class , caste consciousness shall be adopted in caste of india , else there is no way we can acchieve class equality. If you call it identity politics then you are talking like a liberal who calls dalit issues when asking for lgbt rights as identity politics and intersectionality bad. Pointint queer issues out , most of the prominent lgbt india activists are actually right winger ( unfortunately so) , and I know that coz I am queer , so will the party also say , how many queer people supported so and so thing ! When aiming to make an equal society we need to check all boxes of equality wherever possible !
talking about LGBT rights then waving Azov battalion flag is as bad as BJP doing namesake caste affirmative movements. Most identity politics of bahujans falls into this category. Most leftist bahujans who talk about Ambedkar and so on , don't want to admit that Ambedkar himself was a anti communist and he has nothing to do with India's left politics. Even within the lower caste people or dalits they have inter caste issues and this caste problem cannot go away by mere admitting dalits into politburo and your point that is the biggest flaw of CPIM. There are liberals who talks about why CPIM doesn't have more females if it represents equality among sexes. These are bourgeois talking points and btw you are only repeating those talking points here by slandering CPIM who fought against casteism for decades and also for tribal rights . What did ambedkarites achieve for the whole population ?
**In one of his famous speeches, ‘Buddha or Karl Marx?’ he has minced no words in clearly articulating the fundamental differences between the two. It is worth reading and understanding. Babasaheb was a faithful follower of the tenets of the Buddha and he imbibed and put forth the essence in countering communism which he was vehemently against. Whenever he spoke of Buddhism, he always accorded it the status of a proven scientific religion and not of random mysterious practice. For Babasaheb, communism was synonymous with violence and this he illustrated with great depth, powerful words and meaning.
“Buddha would never allow violence, but the communists do. No doubt the communists get quick results because when you adopt the means of annihilating a man, they do not remain to oppose you. Humanity does not only want economic values, it also wants spiritual values to be retained. Permanent communist dictatorship has paid no attention to spiritual values and does not seem to intend to. Carlyle called political economy a pig philosophy. Carlyle was of course wrong. For man needs material comforts. But the communist philosophy seems to equally wrong, for the aim of their philosophy seems to be fatten pigs, as though men are no better than pigs. Man must grow materially as well as spiritually. Buddha’s method was to change the mind of man without the use of force. Buddha sought to change man’s moral disposition to follow the path voluntarily. The means adopted by the communists are equally clear short and swift; one is violence and second is dictatorship of the proletariat,” he said.**
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/the-vantage-viewpoint/buddha-china-and-communism-what-ambedkar-said/