Meet MA Baby, CPM's first general secretary from minority community

Baby was inducted into the CPI(M) central committee in 1999.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has appointed former Kerala education minister MA Baby the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) at the party’s 24th All India Conference in Madurai.

Baby is also the first CPI(M) general secretary from a minoritycommunity.

In a post on X, the party also mentioned that the newly elected Central Committee has 20 per cent women members.

“The CPIM24th Party Congress has elected an 85-member Central Committee with one vacancy. The new Central Committee elected an 18-member Polit Bureau with Comrade M.A. Baby as the General Secretary. 20% of the Central Committee members are women,” read the post on X.

In his message to the delegates after his name was announced as general secretary, Baby called for consolidating the strengths of the party's different committees as well as mass organisations.

"If we work together… all the branches, all the intermediary committees, all the state committees… there are mass organisations that have more than five million members... If we are able to activate them, they will be able to face the challenges we are faced with," he said.

Who is MA Baby?

Baby was born to PM Alexander and Lilly Alexander in Kerala's Prakkulam in 1954. Baby's first exposure to politics came when he joined the Kerala Students' Federation -- a precursor to the Students Federation of India (SFI) -- while in school.

According to reports, Baby became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1986 and served till 1998. He was education minister in the VS Achuthanandan-led Kerala government between 2006 and 2011.

Baby has a keen interest in music, cinema and literature. He is married to Betty Louis, who has served in the Kerala state committee of the SFI. They have a son, named Ashok Betty Nelson, according to PTI.

Betty had been a state committee member of the SFI and had been with Asianet TV as programme coordinator as well as with the CPI(M)-backed Kairali TV as its promotion director

Baby was inducted into the CPI(M) central committee in 1999. But Baby was pushed behind other leaders such as Pinarayi Vijayan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, and M V Govindan came into prominence.

Baby’s poll debut

Baby made his successful poll debut in 2006 from the Kundara Assembly seat. He also served as the state Education Minister between 2006 and 2011 in the V S Achuthanandan Cabinet. However, his term as minister was turbulent. He was also accused of promoting atheism in school textbooks and forced to recall controversial ones.

Baby was re-elected from Kundara in 2011. In 2012, he was inducted into the CPI(M)’s Polit Bureau during the party congress in Kozhikode. However, he lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from the Kollam seat to Congress-backed RSP leader N K Premachandran.