KOLKATA: Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders said here on Friday that the best tribute the party could pay to the memory of Anil Biswas, former secretary of the party's State committee in West Bengal, was to ensure a record seventh successive victory of the Left Front in the coming Assembly elections in the State.

"The battle [at hand] is not just for the sake of the common masses of West Bengal but those of the entire country. We have to recall what Anil Biswas had said - of winning more seats and more votes and creating an [electoral] history in West Bengal by returning the Left Front to power for the seventh successive term," veteran Marxist leader, Jyoti Basu, told a meeting held in memory of the departed leader. Anil Biswas died in a city nursing home on March 26.

Admitting that the CPI (M) had not been able to extend its influence to many other parts of the country, Mr. Basu said there was need "to overcome our weaknesses."

Prakash Karat, general secretary, said: "We shall through our commitment to work be paying him [Anil Biswas] a tribute by winning the coming elections [in West Bengal] for the seventh time." His death had made the task somewhat more difficult "but pursuing the road he had shown and by strengthening the party and the Left forces across the country" it could be achieved, he said.

Mr. Karat also recalled Biswas' warning against "complacence and the threat being posed by imperialist and rightist forces in West Bengal and Kerala where we are strong."

For one "who is of the same age and born on the same day, it is difficult for me to speak about Anil Biswas", West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said. "He has left us at a time when there is a big battle ahead. The importance of the elections in West Bengal and Kerala in the national perspective cannot be overestimated. We have to move forward, there is no place for retreat and have to win the elections. This will be the "deepest, heartfelt tribute one can pay to Anil Biswas," he said.

Biman Bose, who was earlier in the day selected as Anil Biswas' successor, called upon the congregation to fulfil Anil Biswas' pledge to ensure victory for the Left Front and added "we have to focus on mobilising further the party organisation; this will be our tribute to Anil Biswas."

Others who attended the meeting were CPI (M) Polit Bureau member, Brinda Karat, Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, and senior leaders of the Left Front. Members of the bereaved family were also present.

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