CPI-M will react to Somnath's charges, says Karat

Under attack from veteran leader Somnath Chatterjee over the Left's electoral debacle, Communist Party of India - Marixst general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday remained tightlipped about criticism of his leadership and said his party would react to it.

"I won't respond. My party will react (to Chatterjee's charge)," Karat told reporters.

"He (Chatterjee) is not in the party. So I don't need to react," he said when asked about the accusation that he has made the Left movement irrelevant.

He said that the extended central committee meeting of the CPI-M in Vijaywada in August will decide on programmes against the neo-liberal policies pursued by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

In a blistering attack on Karat, Chatterjee, who was expelled by the CPI-M in July, 2008 after he refused to abide by the party directive to resign as Lok Sabha Speaker, has said 'disastrous' policies and 'misguided' actions of the 'current' leadership had resulted in the major debacle in the 2009 general elections.

The former Lok Sabha Speaker has given vent to his dismay over the state of affairs in the CPI-M in his book titled 'Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian'.