Kolkata/New Delhi, June 4 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has decided to skip the two-day Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo meeting in New Delhi, citing the state’s law and order situation after three people were killed in Birbhum district, party leaders said Friday.
CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose told reporters in Kolkata Friday that the recent civic polls in the state will not figure in the politburo deliberations, beginning Saturday.
‘This meeting was fixed quite some time back. So the civic polls are not on the agenda. As per our party norms, such issues can be discussed at the politburo only on the basis of the report of the state committee.’
‘But the West Bengal state committee is yet to review the polls,’ he said.
Bose said preparing the draft document for the three-day central committee meeting at Andhra Pradesh’s Vijaywada June 7-9 will be the main point in the agenda.
Regarding Bhattacharjee’s absence from the meeting, Bose said: ‘We want him in the state now to keep a leash on the law and order situation. Already three people have been killed in Birbhum.’
Queried on the issue, Bhattacharjee confirmed that he would stay put in the state.
‘I am not going. I am staying here,’ he told reporters at the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings.
Senior politburo member M.K. Pandhe said in New Delhi that the chief minister has been asked to attend the meeting.
‘We have informed him that he should attend the meeting as it is important,’ Pandhe told IANS.
‘Let us wait and see,’ he said when asked if Bhattacharjee would come or not.
Party general secretary Prakash Karat told a television channel that he has spoken to the chief minister.
‘It was felt the chief minister should stay in Kolkata as there are clashes in the state,’ said Karat.
He denied that the civic poll results will be discussed at the politburo meet.
Another senior leader admitted that the West Bengal situation was ‘very serious’ and the politburo would discuss it.
‘But a thorough discussion would be held only after the state committee’s review of the election,’ the leader said. ‘The West Bengal unit has to review it properly.’
In municipal elections held across West Bengal Sunday, the Trinamool Congress snatched the prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) from the Left and trounced the Marxists in most of the 80 other municipalities.
Coming ahead of next year’s assembly polls in West Bengal, the results of the civic polls have been a shocker for the CPI-M.
Bhattacharjee had also kept away from politburo meetings after the party’s dismal show in the Lok Sabha polls last year.
The chief minister has been reportedly cut up with Karat since the politburo decided to withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh government in 2008, a decision he thinks was a blunder.
He is believed to be of the view that Karat’s decision to cut all ties with the Congress over the India-US civil nuclear deal caused the Left Front’s rout in the elections.
The 15-member politburo is the highest body of the CPI-M.
The present strength of the politburo is 14, as the party removed senior party leader and Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan from the body for violating party discipline last year.
