While West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has started touring the districts to oversee the development programmes in a bid to woo the voters for the upcoming panchayat polls, the Marxists in West Bengal, worried over the dearth of suitable candidates, are gearing up to chalk out strategies to tackle the Trinamul Congress chief later this week when CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat is expected to fly to Kolkata. Mr Karat is scheduled to attend a three-day state committee meeting starting from September 14 at Alimuddin Street. All the senior party leaders of the state, including state secretary Biman Bose and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, will participate in the meet.
According to party insiders, all the CPI(M) district secretaries are likely to submit their reports on the crisis on eligible candidates on the first day of the meeting. But all focus will be on the next day — September 15 — when the party’s general secretary, as party sources indicated, will hold a one-to-one crucial discussion with his politburo colleague Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the sidelines of the meeting.
For obvious reasons, the point of discussion between the two senior leaders is expected to be on the panchayat polls as the CPI(M) leadership is in a tight spot over picking up “formidable” candidates since the whitewash in the 2011 Assembly election which eroded the party’s massive support base and prompted many comrades to switch over to the ruling camp at the grassroots level.
Party sources hinted that the CPI(M) still depends on Mr Bhattacharjee’s charisma.