Kolkata: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday criticised the Karat lobby for not forming an alliance with Congress and felt that it will affect the party very badly.
In an interview on a vernacular channel, Chatterjee said: "It seems that the Karat lobby is running the show and it will not be good to the party."
He said scrapping of Sitaram Yechury's proposal to have alliance with Congress to counter RSS-BJP was defeated in the Central Committee held in the city on Saturday by 55-31 votes. Chatterjee felt that as a result the Left parties will become weak in Bengal. Already CPI-M has two MPs and party veterans felt that because of distance with Congress, the party will lose both the seats in Lok Sabha in 2019. As Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay has been expelled from the party, there will not be any CPI-M Rajya Sabha member after 2020. Thus, all India representation from Bengal will be negative.
"The way Yechury's proposal was scraped clearly shows that Karat lobby is now most powerful in the party but their decision will not bring good to the party," he maintained.
It may be maintained that in 2008, CPI-M withdrew its support from the UPA government opposing the nuclear agreement. Somnath Chatterjee was expelled from the party as he refused to step down as a Speaker. The decision marked the beginning of party's end in the all India political scenario.
In Bengal, CPI-M did not do well in 2008 Panchayat election and this continued in 2009 Lok Sabha polls. In 2010, it lost control over the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and in 2011, the 34 years Left Front rule came to an end in Bengal. CPI-M has now 28 MLA in the 294 member Bengal legislative Assembly.