The CPM in Bengal had entered into alliance with the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections.
The Bengal unit of the CPI-M has just had salt rubbed into its wounds. Still reeling from a miserable performance in the Assembly elections, now its top leadership is taking it to task for violating party policies and forming an electoral alliance with the Congress.
The Politburo reproof may sound mild but it is unprecedented in recent CPI-M history. The Bengal CPM was not in consonance with political tactical line, it said.
In a communique issued after a two day meeting in Delhi today, the Politburo said, "With regard to the electoral tactics pursued by the CPI-M in various states, the electoral tactics evolved in West Bengal was not in consonance with the Central Committee decision based on the political-tactical line of the Party which states that there shall be no alliance or understanding with the Congress party."
Even before the elections, the Politburo had issued a written caution to the Bengal unit on associating with the Congress. But former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had gone ahead and held a joint public rally with Rahul Gandhi in Kolkata on 27 April.
Mr Bhattacharjee is no longer a Politburo member but the joint rally heralded the birth of a new national political equation, certainly the Bengal CPI-M thought so. Even after the polls, Politburo member Surjya Kanta Mishra shared the stage with Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury at a rally in Kolkata to protest post-poll violence and support what has come to be called the Jote Party.
Will this continue after the Politburo censure? The Bengal unit will discuss the reprimand on 11-12 June. On the 18th and 19th, it will present its explanation to the CPI-M's highest policy making body, the Central Committee. In its 21th party congress at Vizag, the CPI-M had decided: no truck with Congress before or after any poll.
Left Front partners have not helped. CPI says it was a Congress-CPM alliance, not Congress-Left.
The state Congress is all for the alliance. In Delhi, some in the Congress are hair splitting. Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, "There was no alliance but a conscious understanding."
If differences of opinion are ironed out at the Central Committee, it might be a happy ending. Else, comrades could be headed for troubled times. Some are even calling it a war within.