Jyoti Basu offers to quit politburo

NEW DELHI: Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu has once again offered to step down from the CPM politburo, citing age and ill health, a day ahead of the two-day meeting of the party’s decision-making body beginning on Tuesday. However, as Mr Basu himself said, the party leadership is not inclined to accept his resignation.

The 93-year-old CPM leader, who has made the request to quit from the politburo several times in the past one year, is expected to raise the matter before the body. “Yes, I have been telling them that I do not wish to continue in the politburo due to age and ill health and want to resign.

There is no use of my continuing,” he was quoted by PTI as saying. Mr Basu, who quit as West Bengal chief minister in ’00, has not been attending party meetings and programmes ever since he slipped and took a fall last month.

The CPM leader said he had conveyed his desire to quit the politburo to party general secretary Prakash Karat when he last visited Kolkata. Politburo member Brinda Karat said the party will not allow Mr Basu to step down from the politburo and his retirement was not on the agenda of the meeting.

The two-day meeting is expected to focus on the party’s strategy in states going in for Assembly elections, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab besides the UPA’s policies.

The party has not been able to make up its mind on its strategy in Uttar Pradesh, where the CPI has already tied up with the Jan Morcha, the anti-Mulayam Singh Yadav front.

At a recent meeting, the four Left parties decided on a joint strategy in Assembly elections but the discussion remained inconclusive on what to do in Uttar Pradesh, with the CPM undecided on its relations with the Samajwadi Party.