In what many CPI(M) leaders privately called a political “hara-kiri particularly in relation to the unfolding political scenario in Bengal”, the party Central committee on Sunday adopted a draft resolution ruling out any kind of electoral alliance with the Congress.
The draft resolution once again signified a “tactical victory” for former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, as hardliner, over his successor Sitaram Yechury, a pursuer of Jyoti Basu-Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee line. It would come up for deliberation at the next party congress scheduled to take place in Hyderabad in April this year.
The draft political resolution adopted at the end of a three-day Central committee meeting that saw Yechury’s group being outnumbered by more than a dozen votes against any kind of “electoral alliance or understanding with the Congress.”
Yechury had earlier made a passionate appeal against voting with a view to hide fissures in the party ahead of the crucial Tripura Assembly elections. He said, “The draft resolution adopted after some amendments states that there should be no electoral alliance with the Congress.”
Curiously, former Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee remained conspicuous by his absence in the deliberations, a development that spoke of his screaming opposition to the content of the resolution. Insiders, some of whom are prominent leaders of the party from Bengal, said if stopping Jyoti Basu from being the Prime Minister in 1996 and withdrawing support from the UPA-I Government in 2008 were historical blunders “this is perhaps a historical hara-kiri.”
The decision tends to come as a blow to the Left’s hope of a turnaround ahead of the panchayat elections scheduled this year particularly against the backdrop of the fact that the Left-Congress alliance had conceded about 70 seats to the Trinamool Congress in 2016 Assembly elections by a wafer thin margin of 150-4,000 votes, some CC members from Bengal said.