Politburo choice mirrors shift in CPM stance

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.