The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo on Thursday turned down veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu's proposal to quit the party's highest policy-making body because of age and ill health.

Politburo member M K Pandhe said Basu had raised the matter towards the fag end of its two-day meeting on Wednesday, seeking to know the fate of his proposal.

All members unanimously said as a veteran leader and Politburo member, Basu's advice and guidance were invaluable to the party and they, therefore, wanted him to remain in the top body, according to Pandhe.

Basu had told PTI on September 11 he wanted to resign from the Politburo owing to age and ill health. "I can't go (outside Kolkata to attend party meetings) and it is no use continuing (in Politburo)," he had said.

The CPI (M) patriarch had said he requested to be relieved from membership of the Politburo to party general secretary Prakash Karat who visited him in Kolkata recently.

The 93-year-old former West Bengal chief minister, in politics for nearly seven decades now, had said he would not be able to attend a meeting of the party's central committee in New Delhi later this month as he was not keeping well.