“There is a post which is still vacant. Subhas might be taken in that position,” said Basu on the sidelines of a party meeting at Salt Lake. It had been decided in the party’s Coimbatore meeting that the total number of CC members would be 87. But CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat named only 86 members. “I want Subhas to be inducted in both the Central Committee as well as the state Secretariat,” said Basu. The secretariat will be constituted after the panchayat elections in the state.

Basu, however, welcomed the party’s decision to make him a permanent invitee to the Politburo. “This is a good decision,” he said. State Secretary Biman Bose refused to comment on Basu’s remarks. “We usually do not comment on Basu’s remarks,” said Bose at Alimuddin Street after a scheduled meeting of the Left Front. Party insiders said the issue of Chakraborty’s induction into the CC was discussed when Karat, Bose and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met Basu on March 20 at his Salt Lake residence.