Buddha Plus: CPM says he’s Bengal man in Delhi

He is the West Bengal Chief Minister and so he’s the obvious face of the state government at the Centre. But this is a new Centre depen...

He is the West Bengal Chief Minister and so he’s the obvious face of the state government at the Centre. But this is a new Centre dependent on the Left and in a significant move signalling that it’s balancing ‘‘ideology and governance,’’ the CPM and its partners have for the first time given Buddhadeb Bhattacharya the formal stamp of authority to ‘‘interact’’ with the Centre on all issues relevant to the state.

‘‘We have given a letter of authority to him,’’ said Biman Bose, one of the state’s most influential CPM Politburo members and chairman of the Left Front committee after a meeting yesterday.

It was agreed unanimously that ministers from the Left Front constituents will prepare separate and comprehensive documents on all outstanding issues to be taken up with the Centre and would hand these over to the Chief Minister for follow-up action.

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This decision has two basic objectives: One, to ensure that a ‘‘responsible’’ face like Bhattacharya’s (he is seen as a pro-reforms Chief Minister) is the face that is seen at the table negotiating with the UPA. After his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bhattacharya had said: ‘‘We will not use the Central government as a shopping mall.’’ To many, it seemed as a swipe at TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu in the previous NDA government.

The second objective, sources said, was that it was imperative for the Left in West Bengal to fill the vacuum created because of Jyoti Basu’s absence at the national level. Ever since Bhattacharya took over as Chief Minister in November 2000, he has more or less confined himself within the state, unlike his predecessor who till recently used to be viewed as the party’s national face.

‘‘He had some exposure during the past four years (the most visible being his interactions with then Deputy PM L K Advani) but he needed an official sanction to play his role more authoritatively,’’ said a senior Left Front leader.

In fact, in the run-up to the last Lok Sabha polls, when asked if he would be in the running for the Prime Minster’s post should there be a Third Front government headed by the Left, Bhattacharya had said: ‘‘No, I am not. Simply because I have not been a national political leader.’’

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