There is no possibility of a leadership change in the West Bengal CPI(M) although of late, such a demand has been made by several leaders inside the party. Sources said that the party may consider some cosmetic changes like replacing the secretaries of some districts, where the CPI(M) had suffered humiliating routs in the recent panchayat polls.
“The West Midnapore, East Midnapore and Burdwan district secretaries may be replaced. But a change in state leadership is totally ruled out,” a state committee member said.
In the past four years, the party had suffered one electoral drubbing after another. The decline started in the 2009 LS polls in which the TMC took its tally from one to 19 and the number of Left Front MPs came down to 15 from 35. In 2011, the party lost power after 34 long years. In the Assembly bypolls in February, its total vote share further plummeted. In the recent panchayat election, the Left Front was decimated in most of the districts.