For the first time since its inception 53 years ago, Communist Party of India (Marxist) would not send any candidate to Rajya Sabha from West Bengal.
The party lost chance to send former Mayor of Kolkata, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, to the upper house after his candidature was cancelled by the Election Commission on the ground of late filing of required papers and documents.
The issue has assumed significance in the political circle with many writing the obituary of the party. CPI(M) has 31 MLAs in West Bengal and that was enough to send at least one candidate to Rajya Sabha. But after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a crucial political move, decided to support Congress candidate Pradip Bhattacharya, CPI(M) found itself in a fix on whether or not to push for its candidate. And, by the time it made up its mind to back Bikash, his candidature was cancelled.
With this, CPI(M) will have only one Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, Ritabrata Bandyopadhya, who is also facing party's internal inquiry on disciplinary ground. Tapan Sen, another MP, is to retire after his second term in the house.
Though the party had enough number of MLAs in the assembly, it fumbled over Sitaram Yechury, who was denied ticket by the central committee on two grounds—One, CPI(M) would not give a third term to any of its members, and secondly, it would not like to send a member with the help of Congress.
That made party's state leaders fuming. Many feel that the new scenario, where the party could not send even a single MP, is a planned move of the West Bengal unit to teach a lesson to the central unit. Said a central committee member from West Bengal, “Party's top brass in Delhi is working in an aggressive way. We cannot accept their whims all the time.”
Meanwhile, Mamata's sudden twist towards Congress has prompted the CPI(M) to deliberate on the future course of action. Sources said the party would call the state committee meeting soon to discuss an alliance proposal with the Congress before the panchayat election in next year.
“We will have to definitely think of a direct alliance with the Congress which would last till parliament elections next year. Otherwise, the space would steadily vacated by the BJP,” said the central committee member.
CPI(M) West Bengal secretary, Surya Kanta Mishra, said that party did not do any alliance during last assembly elections.
“We did seat sharing arrangement. That should continue like floor coordination in Parliament and assemblies to check BJP,” said Mishra.
The party seems keen to take vital steps to stop itself from going to oblivion.
