Surjeet, Basu urge CPI-M to relieve them from politburo

Communist Party of India-Marxist leaders Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu have requested the party to relieve them from politburo soon due to old age and ill-health.

Talking to UNI in Coimbatore on Monday night, CPI-M Central Committee Member W R Varadarajan said the senior leaders earlier requested to be relieved from the politburo due to their advanced age and immobility. A decision would, however, be taken on the last day of the party Congress on April 3, he added.

Varadarajan said that during the 18th CPI-M Congress in New Delhi in 2005, the Central Committee, the highest forum of the party, had elected 17 politburo members. Unfortunately, Chitta Brata Mujumdar and Anil Biswas died some time back, he added.

He said though Surjeet and Basu urged the CPI-M to relieve them from politburo in the last Congress, the party, had requested them to continue, as it felt their advice and guidance would be of immense assistance to the party.

The nonagenarians were part of the nine politburo members elected when the CPI-M was formed in 1964. They are the only two surviving members till date.

This is the first time, the party Congress is in progress in the absence of Basu.