CPM not likely to let Basu go just yet

CALCUTTA, NOV 12: A week before the CPIM politburo is to discuss the crucial question of allowing 86-year-old West Bengal Chief Ministe...

CALCUTTA, NOV 12: A week before the CPIM politburo is to discuss the crucial question of allowing 86-year-old West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu to retire, the party8217;s state leaders seem to have developed cold feet on the issue. While Basu himself has said that the politburo meeting in New Delhi scheduled for November 18 and 19 will indeed discuss the issue, politburo member Biman Bose yesterday sought to play it down. 8220;It8217;s not on the agenda of the politburo meeting but we8217;ll discuss it if someone raises it,8221; he said.

State CPIM leaders are not keen on seeing Basu bow out was evident at the just-concluded state committee meeting. The issue was not raised at the two-day meeting, which assessed the party8217;s 8212; and the Left Front8217;s 8212; performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections. 8220;It8217;s not an issue for the state committee to discuss,8221; Biman Bose said.

Party general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet too kept the issue open as he ducked questions on Basu8217;s retirement. He only said that thepolitburo meeting would discuss the question of reducing Basu8217;s responsibilities as Chief Minister. Basu himself has dismissed subsequent newspaper reports which said that Information and Home Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharyya might be made Deputy Chief Minister to take over most of Basu8217;s responsibilities. 8220;It8217;s all pure kite-flying,8221; quipped senior party leader Nirupam Sen.

While Bhattacharyya has been groomed for some years to take on Basu8217;s mantle, the party has its reasons for keeping Basu at the helm for as long as he can.

Firstly, Bhattacharyya not only lacks stature, but has only grudging acceptance among the CPIM8217;s partners in the Left Front. His handling of some critical situations has also left party leaders wondering if he is really up to the job of Chief Minister. The party also has only a few leaders to choose from. There is Lok Sabha veteran Somnath Chatterjee, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta and Assembly Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim. But Bhattacharyya has long beaten others in therace.

Secondly, the question of Basu8217;s retirement has come at a crucial time for the party and its government. The party8217;s performance in the Lok Sabha elections showed it was losing ground to the new political force comprising BJP and Trinamool Congress.

While Basu is unlikely to campaign for the party in the next Assembly elections due in June, 2001, a curtain raiser to that will come in less than six months when the Calcutta municipal corporation and 81 municipalities across the state go to the polls next May. In choosing Bhattacharyya, the party may have settled the question of after Basu, who. But it seems more concerned with the more important question of after Basu, what. Hence, the collective reluctance to let the patriarch call it a day.