Buddhas absence felt again 038; again

Post-Lok Sabha election results,the CPM is betraying signs of intense differences in its top leadership.....

Post-Lok Sabha election results,the CPM is betraying signs of intense differences in its top leadership. On Saturday,West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee skipped a meeting of the Politburo in New Delhi. This was third of four post-election meetings of the partys highest policy-making body that Bhattacharjee chose not to attend. Even at a crucial two-day Central Committee meeting recently,the Chief Minister had marked a token presence on the first day and returned to Kolkata by evening.

The agenda of the Saturdays Politburo meeting in New Delhi included among other things the emerging political situation in Bengal after the Lok Sabha polls.

Party sources said in the absence of the Chief Minister,party general secretary Prakash Karat had a closed door meeting with West Bengal secretary Biman Bose. Nirupam Sen,another Politburo member who attended the meeting,was not present with Karat and Bose.

The party forum is not the only thing that Bhattacharjee has been avoiding. Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata sought an appointment with the Chief Minister early this week without success. He had to make good with a meeting with Commerce and Industries Minister Nirupam Sen. According to the sources,Bhattacharjee said: Whats the point. What do I tell Tata? A meeting would have only added to rumour mills and speculation.

The same evening,he skipped a scheduled meet with Ed Miliband,British Environment Minister,and Douglas Alexander of DFID. This when the British government has been financially supporting the Bengal governments programme of restructuring loss-making state PSUs.

Sources close to the Chief Minister say of late,the passion with which he used to govern the state has been lacking.

Early this week,Bose and Bhattacharjee jointly addressed a rally in Kolkata to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Food Movement of 1959 where leaflets and speeches acknowledged the peculiar situation arising after the Lok Sabha polls. Everything is being stalled. Everything has come to a standstill.

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Most of the Bhattacharjees pet projects the Tata small car,the Nayachar chemical hub,the DLF Dankuni projects,the IT park with big players like the Infosys and Wipro to name a few have come to a standstill.

Within the party as also in the government,it is a common knowledge that there are serious contradictions within the CPM and Left Front which are responsible for the deadlock. The poll debacle has given an opportunity to LF constituents as also to anti-Buddha factions in the party. The fight has now taken different dimensions and growing more and more intense, said a senior Forward Bloc leader.

Meanwhile,Bose and Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said Bhattacharjee stayed away from the Saturdays meeting due to health reasons and denied any differences within the CPM.

With ENS,New Delhi