New Delhi/Kolkata, June 4 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been asked to attend a two-day CPI-M politburo meeting in New Delhi during the weekend following the Left Front’s shocking debacle in the state civic polls, but he will not attend, party leaders said.
Bhattacharjee would skip the politburo meeting as he has some ‘urgent government work’, a CPI-M leader said in Kolkata.
However, senior politburo member M.K. Pandhe said in New Delhi that the chief minister has cited ‘law and order problems’ in his state as the reason for skipping the meeting.
‘We have informed him that he should attend the meeting as it is important,’ the party veteran told IANS. ‘Let us wait and see,’ he said when asked if Bhattacharjee would come or not.
Meanwhile, 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.
However, he denied that the West Bengal 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 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 cut up with party general secretary Prakash Karat since the politburo decided to withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh government in 2008, a decision he thinks was a blunder.
He strongly believes 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.
