On the eve of his party’s politburo meeting here, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya met Chinese officials today as part of his efforts to bring investments into the state.The CM said later that he asked the officials—during the meeting at the Chinese Embassy—to expedite the proposed visit of a Chinese business delegation to West Bengal. Accompanied by Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, Bhattacharya told the officials that West Bengal had a good investment climate and was already attracting foreign investors.With the party’s central committee meeting to follow, the CM has won a vote of confidence for the so-called ‘‘Bengal model of development’’ from party members—barring a few dissenting voices, After meeting general secretary Prakash Karat at the CPI(M) headquarters later, Bhattacharya said: ‘‘I am a member of the party, and I met him (Karat). That’s natural.’’ Without directly answering a question on whether the politburo will discuss the development issues of West Bengal, he said: ‘‘All problems will be sorted out.’’CPI(M) MP and central committee member Nilotpal Basu said Bhattacharya’s decisions were based on a process agreed upon by the party. The doubts that had risen among Left Front partners in West Bengal about new projects were being addressed through bipartite meetings, he said.Yechury, too, maintained there was no controversy within the party on the FDI issue. On the West Bengal CM’s Singapore and Indonesia trips, Yechury said, ‘‘If he has visited (those countries) he will report (to the politburo).’’However, Bhattacharya’s policies could be questioned by one politburo member—CITU president M K Pandhe. ‘‘We will discuss everything,’’ he said adding that since the union was opposed to greenfield airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad, the party needed to know how a similar project for West Bengal would be different.
