Inner-party democracy will prevail: Yechury

‘We will neither impose family rule nor RSS rule’

Two days ahead of the leadership change in the Communist Party of India (Marxist), polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Friday asserted that neither the Congress tradition of appointing someone from the family nor the BJP practice of accepting a decision taken by the RSS would apply in the selection of the new general secretary.

Asked about his “gut feeling” on the change of guard, Mr. Yechury’s answer was: “My gut feeling is we will adhere to inner-party democracy. We will neither impose family rule nor RSS rule. There will be no remote control.”

The Rajya Sabha member, who is seen as a front-runner for the post, did not elaborate but said: “None of us in the outgoing Central Committee (CC) are competent to say anything because our party has a very vibrant inner party democracy. The Party Congress — our highest decision-making body — elects the new CC.”

Earlier, outgoing general secretary Prakash Karat indicated that informal consultations had begun to recast the CC.

Elaborating on the process, Mr. Yechury said the new CC in its first meeting — during the Congress itself — would initiate discussions on the next general secretary.

“Traditionally, the outgoing general secretary is the first person to propose a name but constitutionally any one from the CC can propose provided it is seconded by someone.”

On whether there would be major changes in the CC, Mr. Yechury remained non-committal, maintaining it was best not to try and predict.

The CC election is due on Sunday and as of now the two names doing the rounds remain that of Mr. Yechury and another polit bureau member S. Ramachandran Pillai.

Effective change of guard

In its 50 years, the CPI(M) has never witnessed a contest for the post and Mr. Yechury gave no indication whether he would make a bid or if any of his supporters would suggest his name.

A section in the party wants to see an “effective” change of guard in the party and are said to be egging him on to make a bid in the same manner in which he contested the official effort to junk the party’s 25-year-old political-tactical line in the Central Committee last year.