CPI(M) state unit wants Sitaram Yechury as RS member for third time

West Bengal state secretary of the CPI(M), Dr Surjyakanta Mishra wrote a letter to the politburo demanding from the 19-member body that party's national general secretary Sitaram Yechury should be re-nominated to the Rajya Sabha, for the third time.

The decision was taken by CPI(M)'s state secretariat on Thursday at the Day One of the two-day state committee meeting.

Yechury had been the first party national chief to be the party's representative at the Parliament.

Sources in the CPI(M) state committee said that although it was out of convention of the party to let someone from the party continue to the Rajya Sabha for the third time, Dr Mishra has stressed upon two major points for doing so in his letter.

He said that the first and most valid argument was that Yechury had been accepted and appreciated for his performance in the upper house not only by the CPI(M), but by almost all non-NDA parties. Even the Congress had expressed its interest in re-nomination of Yechury. For the second point, Dr Mishra said that with the Congress' support and the vote of 31 Left MLAs, Yechury's nomination can be ensured because any other name might not receive Congress' support.

There has been, however, no positive signal from the Central Committee yet as far as clearing Yechury's name was concerned.