CPI(M)'s state committee meet likely to be stormy today

Kolkata: The state committee meeting of CPI(M) scheduled for Tuesday is likely to be stormy, with many leaders holding the party's bigwigs responsible for the poll debacle in the general election.

In Bengal, CPI(M) had fielded 29 candidates and the deposit of all candidates except Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya had been forfeited. Bhattacharya had contested from the Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat and finished third. Mimi Chakraborty of Trinamool Congress won the seat, followed by Anupam Hazra of BJP.

Among the prominent leaders whose deposits had been forfeited, include Nandini Mukherjee, a teacher of Jadavpur University who had contested from the Kolkata South seat. The others are Nepaldeb Bhattacharya in Dum Dum, Gargi Chatterjee, Ram Chandra Dom, Abhas Roychowdhury, Amiyo Patra and Deblina Hebram.

Meanwhile, a tweet by the party's politburo member and former MP Mohammed Salim criticising the party line that Trinamool Congress and BJP are equally dangerous in Bengal and they are two sides of the same coin, has added fuel to the fire.

On May 31, Salim had tweeted: "The time has come to categorise BJP as the main enemy in the state and take measures to thwart its advance."

This was in direct opposition to party state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra's view that Trinamool and BJP are equally dangerous in Bengal and this was the line followed by the party during the Lok Sabha elections.

Many party leaders who had opposed the line felt that the senior state leaders had failed to assess the situation and guide the party accordingly. They hinted at a major shakeup in the state committee of the party.

The leaders said the transfer of 22 percent votes to BJP is alarming for the party. From 30 percent votes which the party got in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, their share came down to 7 percent in 2019. The leadership could not assess that erosion of support base had reached such a rock bottom level.

Political experts said they are eagerly waiting to hear the explanation CPI(M) leadership would give for the poll debacle.