Walkout by Buddha at CPM meet over bandh
Differences between CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee led to the latter walking out of the party politburo meeting on Sunday evening.
The cause of discord was the CPI(M) leadership’s readiness to exempt Left-ruled Tripura from Monday’s bandh on the grounds that the state had already observed a “transport bandh” on June 26 over the fuel hike, but denying it to West Bengal. Sources said when Tripura CM Manik Sarkar sought an exemption for his state, Mr Bhattacharjee, who was not keen on Monday’s shutdown, pointed out that West Bengal too had observed the June 26 transport bandh, and should be similarly exempted.
But Mr Karat, who has not had “good relations” with his Bengal comrades of late, did not agree. It was argued that the bandh would not succeed if West Bengal stayed out. At this, an upset CM walked out. In Kolkata, meanwhile, some CPI(M) leaders complained that “once again we are looking like a B-team of the BJP” following Monday’s Bharat bandh. They noted how Mr Karat had earlier joined hands with the BJP to bring down the UPA-1 government, which they said had “boomeranged” on the Left.
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