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Politburo choice mirrors shift in CPM stance

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Bidyut Roy

Posted online: Friday , April 04, 2008 at 01:35:32
Updated: Friday , April 04, 2008 at 01:35:32


Kolkata, April 03 Land reforms to industry — the change in the ruling CPM’s priorities over the past 30 years was clear from the selection of members from the West Bengal unit to the politburo.

The Politburo on Thursday inducted West Bengal’s Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s pointsman for the industrialisation drive, to fill the vacancy created by the sudden death of CPM state secretary Anil Biswas in March 2006.

After the CPM-led Left Front came to power in the state in 1977 on the promise of land reforms, the first minister to make it to the Politburo apart from Jyoti Basu was Benoy Krishna Chowdhury, leader of the CPM’s farm front and land reforms minister.

Sen’s induction into the Politburo is expected to give more political and organisational muscle to Bhattacharjee’s drive for industry and reforms, and is open welcome to private and foreign capital.

“Sen’s appointment to the politburo will ease the pressure on the chief minister — so far, he has had to deal with private investors as well as the doubters within the party,” said a senior CPM leader. Bhattacharjee has been a member of the Politburo since 1998.

Sen’s entry has ended the chances of Shyamal Chakraborty, state president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the CPM’s labour arm. There was talk that Chakraborty, who had spearheaded the bloody recapture of Nandigram by CPM cadres last November, would replace CPM state secretary Biman Bose as Left Front chairman. Bose’s leadership has been criticised by most Left Front partners. But Bose managed to cement his position as Front chairman during the recent elections to the Rajya Sabha and also got Chakraborty voted into the Upper House.

Another factor against Chakraborty is the opposition of the party’s Delhi-based leaders like general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member Sitaram Yechuri. In another major change, the politburo designated former chief minister Jyoti Basu a special invitee, partly giving in to Basu’s wish to step down in view of his poor health. As special invitee, Basu will not be entitled to vote in the politburo and will not have to attend all meetings.

“It is a mark of respect to him. Only two of the founding politburo members are living now —- Basu and (Harkishen Singh) Surjeet. So it was decided to keep them as special invitees,” said a senior leader when contacted in Coimbatore. The politburo, now reduced to 15 members, has five faces from West Bengal including Md Amin. However, Amin is there as the CITU’s all-India general secretary, not as representing the party’s Bengal unit. The 87-member CC inducted three new faces from Bengal. They are Mridul De, Madan Ghosh and Gautam Deb. With the Politburo and CC stages set, all eyes are now on the state secretariat. Transport minister Subhas Chakraborty is tipped for a berth. Chakraborty has never been given a senior party position although he is a veteran leader and close to Jyoti Basu.

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