Bengal and TN are in a tussle for CITU leadership

KOLKATA: The race is on for the post of general secretary of CITU, the CPI(M)'s labour wing, after the death of Chittabrata Majumdar, also a CPI(M) politburo member. W R Vardarjan, CITU leader from Tamil Nadu and Tapan Sen of West Bengal are considered to be the frontrunners.

Majumdar, who was also a Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal, died in Kolkata on Tuesday and according to party insiders, Vardarajan has an edge over Sen in terms of eligibility for the CITU general secretariship.

Something that would favour the workers leader from Tamil Nadu is that Vardarajan is already a central committee member of the CPI(M), which Sen is not. As per party constitution, only a central committee member of the CPI(M) can assume the post of the CITU general secretary.

However, there is a provision that can enable Sen to be co-opted in the CPI(M)'s central committee and then he can take charge as the CITU general secretary.

This possibility is, however, termed remote by party insiders.

"By convention, CITU's general secretary gets automatically nominated as a member of the CPI(M)'s politburo, as was done in case of Majumdar. In such a situation, it is unlikely that Sen will be co-opted as a central committee member of the CPI(M) to accommodate him as the CITU general secretary and then immediately nominate him as the politburo member," a senior CPI(M) leader said.

The other members in the CITU's central committee are the CITU president, MK Pandhe and two other CPI(M) central committee members, Hemalata and Kanai Banerjee.