The CPM central leadership's decision of no truck with the Congress was to be sent out as a newsletter.
Rectify. That is the latest message to be sent down the CPM ranks, with the ghost of the Left party's alliance with the Congress in the West Bengal elections not quite laid to rest yet.
"Rectification...and adherence to the line adopted at the 21st Congress ...not to pursue any electoral alliance or understanding with the Congress," concluded a meeting of the CPM in Kolkata on Sunday, called to discuss the alliance, which was sponsored by the Bengal unit for an election that saw the Left party get the least seats it has in over three decades.
On Monday, the party said "some distorted reports have appeared" about the meeting. That referred to news reports that senior Bengal leaders challenged the central brass of the party as never before at Sunday's eight-hour marathon meeting attended by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and his predecessor Prakash Karat.
In a huff, the Bengal unit reportedly suggested that they be sacked if they had violated the party line on Congress. The gauntlet was not picked up; in fact there seemed to be a roll-back.
Earlier, the central leadership's decision of no truck with the Congress was to be sent out as a newsletter to all party members. Now, they have agreed to send it to all but the party's Bengal cadres as "it would appear to question the state leadership's authority," sources said.
Fighting back hard against what it clearly resents, the central leadership's domination, the state unit raised other ghosts from the past at Sunday's meeting. Why was former chief minister Jyoti Basu not allowed to become Prime Minister? Why was former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expelled from the party? Why did the Left withdraw support to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in 2008?
The Bengal unit alleges that these decisions at the central level hurt the party in the state and facilitated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's consolidation in Bengal. She stormed back to power this year with a bigger majority than last time.