Buddhadeb among members dropped from CPM state committee

The leaders have been dropped because of their poor health condition. Bhattacharjee has been unable to come to Alimuddin Street because of ill health. He has been suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD).

He has also not been attending Politburo meetings for the past few years and has been dropped from it. This is for the first time since the early 1970s, when Bhattacharjee will not be a member of the party's state committee. He was a minister of Jyoti Basu's first cabinet in 1977. He started his political career in DYFI, the youth wing of CPI-M. His colleague Gautam Deb has been dropped on health grounds as well. Shyamal Chakraborty, former state Transport minister, has also not been keeping well for quite some time and has crossed the stipulated age as well.

The party is facing a very crucial time, when it has bagged fewer seats than BJP in Gram Panchayat and Panchayat Samity and has bagged only one seat in Zilla Parishad.