Politburo unlikely to take call on VS-Pinarayi spat

Sources said the veteran leader conveyed to Karat and fellow Politburo member Sitaram Yechury that he had not criticised or defended the Governor. His comments that he was not “shocked or surprised” by the Governor’s decision in view of the fact that such things have happened earlier also had been used by his detractors to claim that he was defending Gavai’s decision and hence questioning the party line.

While VS mounted pressure on the central leadership for Vijayan’s removal,it is unlikely that the Politburo and the subsequent meeting of the Central Committee will take a decision on the issue. Since the meetings have primarily been convened to analyse the poll debacle,sources said it is also possible that a separate meeting of the Politburo may be convened later to discuss the Lavalin issue.

With West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and other leaders from the state attending the Politburo meeting,the happenings in Lalgarh and incidents of post-poll violence in other parts of Bengal will be discussed in detail. Bhattacharjee will also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram during his stay here.

While the party central leadership has supported the West Bengal Government’s decision to mount an offensive against Maoists in Lalgarh,it does not want a repeat of a Nandigram-like situation where over a dozen people died in police firing. In this context,its message to state leaders will be to handle the situation carefully. Bhattacharjee,who also handles the Home portfolio,had skipped the Politburo meeting held immediately after elections last month claiming that his presence was needed in the state as he feared post-poll violence. Ironically,he is attending the party meetings this time around while the situation in Lalgarh is deteriorating by the hour.

As regarding the main agenda of analysing the poll outcome,the central committee is likely to arrive at a conclusion that the Third Front plan failed miserably and hold state-specific as well as national factors responsible for the debacle in a fine balancing act of sharing the blame. While the Bengal lobby wants to run down Karat’s Third Front fancy,the central leadership believes that the adverse impact of Nandigram and Singur,the factional feud and the differences in the LDF played a role in the setback.