New Delhi, May 18
The CPM’s anti-Congress pitch during the Lok Sabha elections came up for discussions at the party’s Politburo meeting in the capital today, with a section of the leadership hammering the need to review the results of party’s dissociation from the Congress. The meeting largely focused on how the party would now play a “constructive opposition in the wake of the changed political situation in the country”.
Perturbed over the central leadership’s decision to altogether break away from the Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee skipped today’s meeting baring differences within, though the party attributed his absence to a “worsening law and order situation in the state”. The Politburo sought to deflect attention from the issues bothering it by warning West Bengal of “seventies-like anarchy”.
The reference was to the Emergency imposed under the Congress rule - a fact of history which the Politburo today used well to dilute reactions to a crushing defeat it faced in its bastion. Silent on the other controversies, including the Third Front’s relevance, withdrawal of support to the Congress and intra-party fighting in Kerala troubling it, the Politburo accused the Congress-TMC combine of attacks on its cadre in West Bengal and said the new partners were attempting to
destabilise the elected government by driving out CPM supporters from selected areas.
“We are confident that the peace-loving people of West Bengal will foil the conspiracies which seek to recreate the violence of early 70s,” the Politburo said with not a word on reasons behind the CPM’s electoral losses, the actual cause behind calling the meet in the first place.
That the CPM’s troubles might just have begun was clear from the news that a disturbed Buddhadeb had offered to resign yesterday at the state secretariat meeting - a report which senior Bengal CPM leader Biman Bose dismissed as “rubbish”. That apart, neither Buddhadeb nor Jyoti Basu have ever made secrets of their reservation to general secretary Prakash Karat’s rigid anti-Congress stand which, they believe, firmed up the TMC-Congress alliance to their disadvantage.
Sources said the issue came up at the meeting, which also reportedly saw fireworks on account of the differences between Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and state secretary Pinayari Vijayan, both present today.
Achuthanandan is learnt to have sought action against Vijayan on grounds that the latter’s involvement in a corruption case and his insistence on getting Islamist hardliner Abdul Madani on board, cost the party dearly in the LS elections.
Besides, the leaders are said to have discussed gaps in the Left’s campaign which failed to cash on its contributions to India’s development over the past five years of the UPA rule. Politburo member from Andhra Pradesh BV Raghavulu admitted, “We could not communicate to the people our contributions to the UPA’s progressive policies. The campaign strategy was lacking somewhere.”
There was no serious talk, however, of Karat’s role in the debacle, widely believed to be the result of his inflexible stand. The CPM state committee will, meanwhile, meet on May 24 to discuss state-wise electoral losses and prepare reports which the party’s central committee will later review.
