Buddhadeb skips CPI-M politburo meeting

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, smarting under Left's drubbing in civic polls in his state, on Saturday stayed away from a meeting of the CPI(M) politburo which got a "preliminary" report on the debacle.

Amid reports that 66-year-old Bhattacharya had offered to quit, state CPI(M) Secretary Biman Bose said there was no question of him stepping down, but admitted the state unit has not properly implemented the rectification campaign initiated by the central leadership after the Lok Sabha poll debacle.

"The question does not arise. The matter has not been referred to the Central Committee. It has not been discussed in the state committee," Bose, who is here to attend the two-day party politburo meeting, told reporters. The meeting was presided by general secretary Prakash Karat.

Asked whether there would be any change in leadership in the state, Yechury evaded a direct answer and said only after the state committee reviews the election debacle, the matter will come to the Central Committee and politburo.

This is the second time Bhattacharya is skipping a politburo meeting. He cited post-poll violence in the state as the reason for his inability to attend. WB Industries Minister Nirupam Sen also did nto attend.

Earlier too, Bhattacharya had stayed away after the 2009 Lok Sabha polls where the Left suffered a huge blow in the state and even offered to quit. He completes 10 years as chief minister this November after taking over from CPI-M stalwart Jyoti Basu.

Giving an inkling as to what may have caused the CPI-M drub in the WB civic polls, Bose said, "We have not been able to implement the total programme as of now. We are not able to implement it properly. We need to move towards proper implementation."

He said the party will continue its work in this direction and efforts were on to develop close relations with public there.

After the setback in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the CPI(M) had initiated the rectification campaign aimed at eradicating wrong trends among the cadre and leaders and setting the house in order.

The politburo decided to go into the issue of the civic poll debacle after the state committee formalises its report by this month-end following assessments made by local units on what went wrong in the polls.

"There was a preliminary report on the municipal polls. The PB decided to go into the review after the state committee reviews it. Once the state committee does that, we will go into it," Yechury said.