No labour, peasant leader in CPI(M) state committee

Kolkata: There are no representatives from the labour and peasant fronts in the newly constituted state committee of the CPI(M).

The development comes as a departure from the usual as since the inception of the party in 1964, CPI(M) has always inducted leaders from the two fronts in the state committee.

Jyoti Basu and Harekrishna Konar had represented the labour and peasant fronts respectively in 1964.

Dipak Dasgupta and Nripen Chowdhury, who had criticised the party for its alliance with Congress, have been dropped from the state committee.

Both had strongly criticised the party in 2016 when the party inked an alliance with Congress. The result had been a disaster for the Left Front which had bagged only 32 seats, of which CPI(M) got 26.

After the results of the Assembly elections came out in 2016, both the leaders began criticising the party's stand. But over the years, the demand to have alliance with Congress increased and even the Central Committee of the party, which was initially against any alliance with Congress, changed its stance and supported the Bengal line.

It was Goutam Deb who had first talked about the alliance with Congress, following which he received support from Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Deb and Manab Mukherjee have also been dropped from the state committee on the ground of their deteriorating health.

However, the leadership has refused to comment on the decision of not including any leaders from the peasant and labour fronts in the party. It may be mentioned that three leaders, namely Abhas Roychowdhury, Sumit De and Anadi Sahu, who had supported the alliance with Congress, were inducted into the state committee in 2018.