CPI(M)'s decision to nominate student leader wrong: Abdur Rezak Mollah

KOLKATA: Outspoken CPI(M) leader Abdur Rezak Mollah today termed as 'wrong' the party's decision to nominate SFI General Secretary as Left Front nominee for the Rajya Sabha polls from West Bengal and one taken by leaders in ivory towers.

"There are one or two leaders who live in ivory towers who take wrong decisions for which the party is suffering time and again," Mollah, a former Minister for Land and Land Revenue told a Bengali TV channel.

Attacking some of the politburo members he said that there "is a king" who doesn't attend CPI(M)'s politburo meeting nor the central committee meeting, but takes decisions sitting in a small room.

"Such decisions are damaging the party and has no link with practicality," said Mollah, who is alo CPI(M) Chief Whip.

Asked whether he was hinting that CPI(M) leaders Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee and Gautam Deb were behind the decision to nominate SFI General Secretary Ritabrata Banerjee, Mollah said those opposing leaders in ivory towers feared that they would be driven out.

"There should be strong protest against this and I also urge party cadres to protest this," he said.

Stating the LF nominee was a person from the upper caste who was yet to acquire political maturity, Mollah alleged that Muslims were neglected in the party.

Holding that there was no Muslim leader in the Rajya Sabha from the CPI(M) in West Bengal, he said "Did not the party find any candidate from them who can give leadership to the party in the Rajya Sabha?"

Naming young leaders like Abdus Sattar and Debesh Das belonging to the scheduled caste as being suitable, he said that that Banerjee also carried a stigma for the roughing up of state finance minister in April last year. "The people did not like it."

Asked whether the party was alienated from Muslims as evident in different elections and their neglect would further alienate them before the Lok Sabha elections, Mollah said "No party can survive without them. These are the backward people and that is why they are used as pawns in a game of chess.

He said that would not leave the party, but the party could drive him out if he wanted to.

"What I think proper I will say. I do not fear anyone," he said.