Party's politburo member and veteran leader Sailen Dasgupta, who has been replaced by Biswas, however stays on as the chairman of the Left Front, a party release said here today.

Incidentally, Dasgupta, who recommended Biswas as his successor during the meeting today, has been expressing his desire to quit the post on health ground since the party's State conference in August this year.

A press release from the party secretariat today said that Dasgupta had expressed his desire to step down as the secretary of the State committee for quite sometime now.

But he was told to continue till the 16th Party Congress was over. And when Dasgupta raised the issue again at the party meeting today, the State committee approved his request. The leaders, however, decided that Dasgupta should lead the LF as its chairman, a post which he took overin 1991 after the LF chairman and State committee secretary Saroj Mukherjee's death.

The meeting was also attended by party general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu. Anil Biswas, a Central committee member and the editor of the party's Bengali mouthpiece Ganashakti, happens to be one of the most powerful leaders of the present State party setup.

Biswas, who was relieved of his responsibility of the Ganashakti's

editorship during the meeting, already has political observers wondering if he would eventually succeed Dasgupta as the next chairman of the Left Front. It would also be in keeping with the CPI(M)'s tradition.

The State committee has also endorsed the names of leaders recommended by Dasgupta for constituting the new committee. In all, 13 members have been selected for the new committee. They are: Jyoti Basu, Benoy Chowdhuri, Sailen Dasgupta, Anil Biswas, Biman Bose, Buddhadeb Bhattacharaya, Niren Ghosh, Benoy Konar, Chitrabrata Mazumdar, Nirupam Sen, ShyamalChakraborty, Suryakanta Misra and Dipen Ghosh.

During the meeting, the members have also constituted a five-member committee which will implement the important decisions taken during the last State Conference.