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West Bengal situation gets murkier

Zakia Maryam in Calcutta

Even a few days after the Communist Party of India pulled out of the Left Front ministry in West Bengal, it is still unclear if the party can be persuaded to withdraw its decision. Hectic parleys among the various Left constituents are on to resolve the deadlock amicably.

Today, two CPI ministers in the state cabinet -- Water Resources Development Minister Nandgopal Bhattacharya, and Civil (Defence) Minister Shrikumar Mukherjee -- stayed away from their offices in Writers' Building for the second day. They have also stopped using their official car, apparently to express their resentment at the Communist Party of India-Marxist's decision not to allow the sitting CPI Rajya Sabha MP, Gurudas Dasgupta, to get re-elected in the forthcoming elections for five RS seats in West Bengal.

While the CPI-M will field candidates for three seats, one has been allotted to the Revolutionary Socialist Party nominee at the expense of Dasgupta.

Even the Left Front's meetings yesterday failed to devise a magic formula whereby the current crisis could be blown away. The CPI-M bigwigs apparently wanted the CPI to support the RSP's candidate in place of Dasgupta, at least till 2002. But CPI state secretary Manju Mazumdar wasn't willing to compromise.

The current impasse has also made things difficult for the Left when the Calcutta civic polls are only few months away. The Front had nearly lost the Calcutta municipal elections to the Congress last time. Had it not been for the backing of the lone independent councillor, the Congress would have won. Both the Congress and the Left were evenly poised, with 71 councillors each.

Since then, many developments have taken place in Calcutta. Mamta Banerjee parted ways with the Congress to form the Trinamul Congress and the results of the successive Lok Sabha elections indicate that the Left's popularity has dwindled considerably in Calcutta over the years. Of late, as many as 40 Congress councillors switched loyalties to the Trinamul Congress, enabling the latter to claim the main Opposition's status.

Clearly, even Chief Minister Jyoti Basu knows only too well that the current crisis in the Left is bound to help the opposition comprising the Trinamul and the BJP if not resolved on time. Talking to rediff.com, the leader said, " Though unlike other fronts, the Left has the tradition of maintaining unity, I am extremely concerned. The resignations have taken me by surprise. However, our prime focus now is to first tide over the crisis and not allow fascist forces to reap the advantages of our differences."

Interestingly, Basu was conspicuous by his absence in both the Left Front meetings held after the CPI took its momentous decision.

Even though the CPI maintains that it has no plans to pull out of the Front, political observers fear the wrong message has already been sent to the masses. So any attempt to block Dasgupta's reelection could have serious repercussions on the future electoral prospects of the Left, regardless of whether the CPI stays in the Front.

All hopes are now pinned at the CPI-M's Politburo and Central Committee meetings, slated for March 10 and 11 respectively. Even Nandgopal Bhattacharya says that he was eagerly awaiting the outcomes of these two meetings. He told rediff.com earlier today, "Talks are on between our national leaders and CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet in New Delhi. The state CPI unit has authorised our national secretary, Mr A B Bardhan, to take the final decision in this regard. Until that happens, we will stick to our decision not to return to Writers' Building."

The CPI-M has problem with parties other than the CPI too.

For the Forward Block, whose leaders hold some key portfolios in the state cabinet, is backing the CPI here; the Revolutionary Socialist Party, meanwhile, is backing the CPI-M.

The only way out to the current deadlock may be Basu's personal intervention. However, he has yet give any indication of intervening the crisis.

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