Synopsis: The ruling LDF in Kerala may have conveyed its intention to pause the implementation of PM-SHRI—weeks after signing up to the central scheme—under intense criticism from within the front, but it has done little to ease tensions between allies, the CPI(M) and the CPI. Education Minister V Sivankutty and CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam have continued to engage in a public spat over the issue, even as the state gears up for the crucial local body polls in December, seen as a litmus test for the 2026 Assembly elections.

The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government’s decision in October to join the Union Government’s PM SHRI (Prime Minister’s Schools for Rising India) scheme triggered perhaps the sharpest rift within the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in nearly two decades, bri

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