Ritabrata expelled from primary membership of party: Mishra

Kolkata: Politburo member and state secretary CPI(M) Surjya Kanta Mishra issued a statement declaring that Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay has been expelled from the primary membership of the party under clause 19(13) of the Constitution for grave anti-party activities.

"Considering his grave anti-party and anti-Communist role, the state Secretariat of the party has taken the decision of summarily expelling him from the primary membership of the party on September 13," the statement by Mishra read.

On Wednesday, the party's state Secretariat held an emergency meeting and had recommended Bandyopadhyay's expulsion following his explosive interview with a Bengali news channel where he had criticised party's Politburo members — Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat and Mohammad Salim. According to party constitution, the state committee cannot implement such a decision against a sitting MP without the approval of its higher body. Therefore, the state committee sent recommendation to party's Central Committee for approval. As the next Central Committee meeting is due in mid-October, the party's Politburo decided not to wait for another month and informed its decision to party's Bengal State Committee. According to the statement by Mishra, Bandyopadhyay was cautioned publicly by the State Committee in last February for breaking party discipline. He was asked to rectify himself and refrain from misusing social media. Later on, the State Committee meeting held on June 1 and 2 had resolved to constitute a 3-member enquiry commission to investigate four serious allegations against him. Under the provision of the party constitution he was suspended from the primary membership of the party for three months till the enquiry was completed. "He was allowed to defend himself in that State Committee where he assiduously stated that the party was his guardian and he would strictly abide by the discipline and accept the decision of the State Committee whatever action would have to be taken following the report of the enquiry commission," the statement read.

The allegations against him were continuous leakage of internal party matters and discussions to media; moral degeneration in relation to women, serious inconsistencies between his income and expenditure and lavish life-style incompatible to that of the party. "He was heard four times by the commission comprehensively on numerous allegations on the aforesaid four areas. Though he failed to disprove most of the serious charges against him, he seemed to be not at all repentant," the statement added.