No democracy in CPM — Rebel

CALCUTTA, DECEMBER 22: Dissident CPI(M) leader Saifuddin Choudhury, former MP, today met West Bengal CM Jyoti Basu in connection with various issues, including lack of inner party democracy in the party, alienation of the party from the people, failure of the party to take a pragmatic look in view of changed circumstances. Choudhury had raised these same issues recently and created a flutter in party circles both here and at the national level.

“This much I can tell you that we have assured the CM that at least we will not do anything that goes against our secular fabric and modernity,” he told this paper after the meeting. During the tenure of ex-prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, Choudhury was a high-profile MP holding different posts. He was divested of his membership of the Central Committee of his party at the party congress held at Chandigarh in 1995. The main grudge against Choudhury was that he opposed the no-confidence motion tabled against Rao’s Government by Opposition parties, including theCPI-M.