Feb. 8: Left Front-ruled West Bengal and Kerala got together to put a spanner in CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat’s moves to hold the party congress before the West Bengal Assembly election in 2011. The party congress is now likely to be held in 2012.
Mr Karat reportedly wanted the party congress held before the Bengal polls since it would have given him the option of getting himself re-elected party general secretary for the next three years. Mr Karat had taken over as CPI(M) general secretary in the 2005 party congress. Sources disclosed that Mr Karat and his loyalists intended to hold the CPI(M) party congress some time before the 2011 West Bengal Assembly polls because a debacle in the Bengal elections would make it virtually impossible for Mr Karat to cling on as party general secretary. The CPI(M) general secretary is elected every three years in a party congress, the last one being held in Kerala in 2008.However, repeated electoral routs have made Mr Karat’s position vulnerable and resentment against him and his policies are growing in the party, the sources disclosed.Following the rapid emergence of the Trinamul Congress and the Congress in West Bengal, the position of the CPI(M)-led Left Front, ruling Bengal for over three decades, has become “shaky”, a CPI(M) central committee member disclosed. “There seems to be a wave against the CPI(M) in Bengal,” he claimed. Sensing that an electoral rout could make it difficult for Mr Karat, a section in the party wanted the party congress held before the Assembly polls.However, state committee members of both Kerala (Mr Karat’s home state) and West Bengal reportedly vetoed the move and made it clear that with elections approaching there would be no time to focus on the party congress. Both the Left Front-ruled states insisted that it be held after the West Bengal polls, preferably in 2012. The CPI(M), meanwhile, is likely to hold an extended central committee some time in November this year. The extended meeting would give shape to the party’s political ideology and determine its course of action. It would also determine the party line with regard to the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress. The Bengal committee intends to debate Mr Karat’s anti-Congress line, which has led to the resurgence of the Trinamul Congress in Bengal.
Sanjay Basak New Delhi