CPI-M politburo to meet May 18 to finalise strategies

AGARTALA: The CPI-M politburo will meet in Delhi May 18 to discuss the outcome of the Lok Sabha election results and to finalise the party's strategies, party sources said here Tuesday.

The 15-member politburo is the highest policy making body of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

"To decide the CPI-M's next course of action in view of the Lok Sabha election results, the politburo may decide to convene a meeting of the party's central committee. The committee has 93 members," a CPI-M leader told IANS.

In this election, the CPI-M put up 98 candidates, including 11 women and five Independents, in 23 states. In the 2009 general election, the CPI-M won 16 seats down from 44 seats which it held in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

Before the Left parties' debacle in West Bengal assembly polls in 2011, the Left strength in the Lok Sabha plunged to 24 seats in 2009.