CPI(M) Polit Bureau meeting in Kolkata today

Third session after poll defeat

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will meet here on Friday and the Central Committee, over the weekend.

This will be the third Polit Bureau meeting after the major electoral defeat suffered by the Left Front in West Bengal. It will be attended by the former Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. He was unable to attend the previous two meetings in New Delhi and Hyderabad. With the Left Front sitting in the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly for the first time in 34 years, it is likely that discussions on the way forward will come up at Friday's meeting.

The CPI(M) has claimed that 30 supporters and workers of the Left parties were killed in a series of attacks following the announcement of the election results. The need for a widespread campaign in protest against this violence and in defence of the democratic rights of people has already been emphasised, and the issue is likely to be raised again at the meeting.

No change in leadership

Despite the losses in the West Bengal and Kerala Assembly elections, the party has ruled out any change in the leadership in the two States. West Bengal secretary and Polit Bureau member Biman Bose described as “rumours” media reports of Mr. Bhattacharjee offering to resign.

Negative factors in West Bengal

A review report on the election results, adopted by the Central Committee in Hyderabad in June, noted that in West Bengal “the people have voted determinedly for a change.”

“It is evident from the results that the trend against the Left Front, which emerged partly in the panchayat elections in 2008, continued in the Lok Sabha polls in 2009 and in the 2010 municipal polls and got further momentum in the Assembly elections,” the document states.

It lists the “negative factors” that accumulated during the prolonged 34-year rule of the Left Front including shortcomings of the government in recent years, the manner in which the issue of land acquisition was brought to the fore in Singur and Nandigram and a decline of the image of the party because of “manifestations of high-handedness, bureaucratism and refusal to hear the views of the people.”