Challenging West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his predecessor Jyoti Basu's statements advocating capitalism, Kerala Chief Minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member V.S. Achuthanandan Monday underlined the importance of socialist ideology.

"Those who toe and support the ideology of capitalism will have to surely repent in the near future. It is best to take a look at the fate of all those who backstabbed the party," said Achuthanandan while addressing an Ernakulam district party conference at Aluva.

Both Basu and Bhattacharjee last week said industrialisation in West Bengal had to follow the capitalist course and wondered why were Left front allies objecting to this.

"The basic ideology of the Communist Party is that socialism will become a reality only through people-centred democratic revolution," said Achuthanandan who is seen as currently engaged in a bitter feud with the so-called 'official faction' of the party in Kerala led by his archrival and state secretary Pinnarayi Vijayan.

While Vijayan belongs to the 'new school of thought', Achuthanandan maintains the orthodox line.

In this backdrop, he said: "The ideological debate in the party is not a taboo and even if someone tries to prevent the debate, it would not be successful."

"When we aligned with parties like the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and even Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran, a debate took place in our party and finally the central leadership decided not to align with these parties," added Achuthanandan.

Reacting to Achuthanandan's statement, state Congress chief Ramesh Chennithala said the Communist ideology had crumbled across the world.

"We wish to know the reaction to Achuthanandan's statement from other Left parties," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, former firebrand Communist M.V. Raghavan said it was time the CPI-M in Kerala was disbanded or at least it changed its name.

"The CPI-M should desist from cheating its cadres in the name of Communist ideology," said Raghavan who was booted out of the party after he spoke about the need for aligning with the IUML in the mid-1980s.