The Central Committee of the CPI(M) has rejected the West Bengal State Committee’s proposal to elect General Secretary Sitaram Yechury for a third term in the Rajya Sabha.

It has asked the State unit to put up an “independent” candidate acceptable to opposition parties in the State. If a consensus within the Opposition remained elusive, the Left Front would consider a contest, Yechury told reporters after a 3-day meeting of the Central Committee.

Yechury said his party upholds certain principles in politics and it has been a norm that no member should get a third term to the Rajya Sabha. He maintained that it was not a parliamentary seat, but work on the ground that will help the Left’s cause in West Bengal.

Citing the examples of former MP and economist Arjun Sengupta’s election to the Rajya Sabha — with the support of the Congress and the Left from West Bengal — expressed hope that the Opposition in the Assembly, without the BJP, could work together to find such a candidate.

When asked about State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s proposal that her Trinamool Congress would back the Opposition if the candidate were to be former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Yechury said the Left Front will take an apt decision after consultations with non-BJP political parties in the Opposition.

He said the meeting also heard the report of the Tripura State Committee on the preparations to the Assembly elections next year in the wake of the Sangh Parivar’s alleged efforts to destabilise Left Front government ahead of the polls. “The Central Committee is confident that the peace-loving people of Tripura will rise to foil all such conspiracies being hatched by the BJP and their record to violence and re-affirm their faith in the Left Front and re-elect the Left Front candidates in the forthcoming elections,” he said.