State CPI(M) pushes Yechury for Rajya Sabha with Cong support

CPI(M) state committee on Wednesday endorsed Sitaram Yechury for Rajya Sabha.

Politburo members including Brinda Karat, Sitaram Yechury along with Biman Bose, Suryakanta Misra and Mohammad Selim were present in the meeting. The state committee endorsed Yechury as the party will not be able to send any candidate to Rajya Sabha before 2019.

The politburo had opposed to the nomination of Yechury as the party does not nominate anyone for the third consecutive time. Also, the politburo is against any member holding two posts. Brinda Karat had opposed to Yechury's nomination. The politburo will hold a two-day meeting on June 6 and 7 to give a final nod.

This is for the first time when a CPI(M) secretary and a politburo member will have to go to Rajya Sabha taking support from Congress. Yechury had supported Bengal's lobby to have alliance with Congress before the 2016 Assembly elections. The result was disastrous for the party which had bagged only 26 seats, the lowest in the past four decades.

Even the politburo did not approve of the alliance and had issued a communiqué which stated that the alliance with Congress was not in consonance with the party's central committee's decision. But despite that, it could not resist Bengal lobby's support to Yechury as if the party misses this chance, they would have to wait till 2023. Just to have its presence in Rajya Sabha, the politburo did not even hesitate to hold Congress's hand.

In the Assembly by-elections and the Municipal elections, the CPI(M) and Congress alliance failed to make any dent with CPI(M) failing to get even a single seat out of 64 seats in three Municipalities in the plains.

The election track record of Yechury is very poor but despite that, CPI(M) had agreed to send him as Rahul Gandhi had supported his nomination for Rajya Sabha.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee also does not have any objection if Yechury is nominated. Political experts maintained that this is for the first time in the history of CPI(M) when the party had to depend on its arch rival Congress to send its candidate to Rajya Sabha.