CPM reviews poll result, no action in sight

NEW DELHI: Amid intense discussion on decimation in West Bengal and below par performance in Kerala, the CPM politburo on Sunday stuck to its age-old explanation of collective responsibility and postponed action to another day.

After the meeting, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said the result needed to be analyzed seriously. The party has called another meeting of the politburo on June 6 that will be followed by central committee meeting for two days to review the result in the two states, especially Bengal where BJP has made serious inroads.

Sources said West Bengal secretary Biman Bose gave a report on the poll debacle and said he could resign if the party wanted. But the offer lacked seriousness as a few hours later, Bose reacting to Nitish Kumar's resignation and Sonia Gandhi's similar offer, contemptuously said, "Sonia, Nitish are bourgeois party leaders.

They can have leadership responsible for the defeat but not the CPM which believes in collective leadership."

He said whether leadership has performed bravely or not needs to be discussed.

Bose's line was rebutted by an angry politburo member who said, "Leninist principle is of collective function but individual responsibility. If we continue like this, the party will be finished. If leadership lacks energy it shows in the cadre."

He said the politburo meeting had not indicated if heads would roll immediately. "First indication of decline was in 2009 but in the past five years, nothing has changed. No one has resigned, no one has been removed from responsible positions," he said.

However, a central committee member from Bengal said, "There is huge resentment in the party cadre against Bose. He works through a Kolkata-based clique and has distanced the cadre from the leadership unlike Anil Biswas who took everyone along."

In Bengal, he said, the party was faced with another problem, namely the growing distrust of other Left parties with CPM's leadership of the Left Democratic Alliance.

A senior central committee member said, "Crisis might be immediate but solution will be only as per the timeline. But the cadre wants change in state and central leadership." He explained that there might be attempts by the top leadership to continue till the next party congress in 2015.

Karat has already said this is his last term and would relinquish office next year. Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not attend the meeting. In fact, he has not attended a single politburo/central committee meeting in Delhi since 2011.

As for Kerala, the politburo expressed concern at the party's poor performance. "Unlike earlier occasions, the party did not face open dissent. Leader of opposition V S Achuthanandan also campaigned for party candidates," a Kerala leader said, adding if serious steps are not taken, it might go the Bengal way.