Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wants to quit politburo

Former CPI(M) and Left Front chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has told the party’s highest decision-making body that he would like to quit the politburo on “health ground”. Party sources also hinted that Bhattacharjee may not attend the Party Congress set to begin on April 4 in Kerala.

Party sources said that while Buddhadeb’s request is rather old, its revival just before the Party Congress will not be a compliment to the party general secretary Prakash Karat and his leadership as this time his request to quit also came with a strong possibility of his not attending the Party Congress.

“He has written a letter to Karat to this effect saying due to his illness he is no more capable of carrying out his official duties at national level,” a party insider said.

Both party insiders and political observers here see this as his protest against the manner in which the party functioned from national to state-level, ignoring his advices which he felt led to the party’s electoral debacle almost everywhere.

It is interesting to recall here that while Buddha wants to quit on health grounds, the ‘so-called young brigade’ —Karat, Bhattacharjee, Biman Basu — did not allow Jyoti Basu to quit the highest decision-making body,  even as the displaced and ailing Basu, repeatedly appealed for relieving him on the same grounds.
Bhattacharjee will have to depend on the party leadership to allow him to quit.