Asked whether he would continue to be a politburo member, 94-year-old Basu told media persons at the CPI-M state headquarters, "I do not wish to continue and I have verbally communicated this to the party leadership."
He told the state party conference that West Bengal now stood at the crossroads and there was no prior model for industrialisation available to it.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) contention that capitalism was the only way to industrialise West Bengal has made Left Front partners aghast.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday claimed the bullets used by suspected Communist Party of India-Marxist cadre in the January 7 Lalgarh firing incident, which left seven villagers dead, were same as those used by police.
The tussle between cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist and CPI- Marxist has taken an ugly turn in West Bengal, with as many as 120 CPI (M) workers being selectively identified, abducted and killed by Maoists in the past 11 months.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist, which is under all-round attack over the unabated violence in Nandigram, on Monday accused the Trinamool Congress of taking the help of Maoists to create trouble in the area and insisted that normalcy will be restored there soon. Party General Secretary Prakash Karat said that the Trinamool Congress was indulging in certain activities as it had failed to win the confidence of people in a democratic manner.
A prominent West Bengal Communist Party of India- Marxist leader Anisur Rahman embarrassed his party and kicked up a political storm for making obscene remarks against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before apologising, with Trinamool Congress submitting a privilege notice and threatening to slap a legal notice on him.
Six Communist Party of India leaders, including a legislator, were beaten up, five ration shops were ransacked and two houses set ablaze as the violence against corruption in the public distribution system went on unabated in Bardhaman, Birbhum and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal.
Launching an attack on the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist in West Bengal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the party of 'grabbing' crores of rupees from central funds meant for the uplift of the poor and downtrodden.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday categorically ruled out forging an alliance or a united front with the Congress in future.
Noting that the CPI-M will oppose UPA's policies both inside and outside the government, he said his party has not discussed the issue of withdrawing support to the Central government.
Derek O'Brien of Trinamool Congress came near the podium and tried to show the rule book to the Deputy Chairman. An attempt was also made to snatch the microphone and the marshals tried to prevent it.
Yusuf Tarigami, a prominent Communist Party of India Marxist leader from Jammu and Kashmir, has taken up the cause of the beleaguered journalists in the state who have been going through a harrowing time due to the curfew imposed in the valley by the state administration.Newspapers failed to hit the stands for a few days recently after the government refused to issue curfew passes to even accredited journalists in the state.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist demanded tabling of a draft law to deal with honour killings in the monsoon session of Parliament, alleging that "political considerations" were downplaying the magnitude of such crimes. The party also criticised Home Minister P Chidambaram, saying he had a "flawed understanding" on having a separate comprehensive legislation on the issue.
State party leaders admit that Hindu consolidation by itself was not good enough to unseat Didi.
Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal has sought systemic changes in the GST structure, saying every state and consumer has lost because of its basically flawed architecture that has also led to rampant revenue leakage for the states. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime came into force in July 2017. Even though the framework is focused on having a one-nation-one-tax model, quite a few items, including petroleum products and liquor are still out of the GST purview.
Vijayan was stopped with bullets and they were taken away from him at the Chennai airport when he was traveling to New Delhi on February 16.
The group, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state secretary Biman Bose, feels the "timing of the withdrawal" in July 2008 was "wrong". The group will seek a review of this decision in the forthcoming extended Central Committee meeting of the party in Vijayawada in August and also question other decisions of the party that are alleged to have led to the debacle in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking at the inauguration of his book, former Speaker and Parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee called on youngsters to join politics and try change the system from within. Indrani Roy reports
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday attacked Congress, accusing it of trying to help Communist Party of India-Marxist in the coming civic polls in West Bengal and virtually compared its United Progressive Alliance partner to collaborators of Pakistani army during Bangladesh liberation war.
In a huge embarrassment to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the special investigating team probing the murder of Marxist rebel T P Chandrasekharan has told a local court that party senior leaders were involved in the conspiracy to kill him.
Without strategising together, Jayalalithaa's successor, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and M Karunanidhi's son-cum-successor, M K Stalin, have used tough-talking on seat-sharing with allies, to replace charisma that they purportedly lacked, during the run-up to the assembly polls scheduled for April 6, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Deepening the image crisis that has afflicted Communist Party of India-Marxist in Kerala, police on Monday registered a murder case against the party's Idukki district secretary M M Mani for his controversial speech stating that the party had eliminated political enemies in the past.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist asked the Congress to take the initiative in building a consensus on the candidate for the presidential election though it indicated it was not averse to supporting either Vice President Hamid Ansari or Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the post.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kerala secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, arraigned as an accused in a graft case relating to awarding of contract to a Canadian firm during his tenure as Power Minister in 1998, was on Wednesday granted bail by a CBI special court in Kochi.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has expressed serious concern over Indian investigating agencies not being allowed to interrogate Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley and sought to know what steps the government is taking into the matter.
According to senior Congress leader Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, "It will be a mistake to consider that it was the BJP that created the disturbance. The Communist Party of India-Marxist worked in collusion with the saffron brigade to throw life out of gear in Bengal."
The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Monday said assembly elections should be held only after restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and asked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government to honour its commitment made on the floor of Parliament.
The CPI(M) today observed 'Black day' in Kerala in protest against Governor R S Gavai's decision to accord sanction to the CBI to prosecute former Minister and party's state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC Lavalin graft case.
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said though All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha could not join the meeting of leaders belonging to the Third Front but she was very much in touch with them."In fact she approved of the six point charter that formed the basis of Sunday's discussion," Karat said while addressing a press conference at the release of the first part of party's election manifesto in New Delhi.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Wednesday announced a three-member committee headed by state secretary N Varadarajan to discuss seat-sharing with its new ally All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Taml Nadu.
"This is not a manifesto, it is our pledge to bring a change which is set to become true. Every sector has been taken into consideration while preparing this manifesto so that we can make Bihar a happy, better and prosperous state," Tejashwi Yadav said while releasing vision document.
Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary and politbureau member Pinarayi Vijayan, who is leading a yatra from Kasargod in the northern-most part of Kerala to state capital Thiruvananthapuram says that his road show has been getting overwhelming response from all corners and that the people are flocking to take part in it.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Tuesday appeared lukewarm to the speculations on bringing him back to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, saying that he would not appeal to the party.
Among all Joshi's other portfolios -- he is also minister for coal and mines -- it is parliamentary affairs that is politically the most crucial. But to make a success of his job, he may have to hone his people skills a bit more, reports Aditi Phadnis.
With the aim of opposing the India-United States nuclear agreement, the Communist Party of India - Marxist is trying to form a third front without the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, senior party leader Sitaram Yechuri said on Sunday. Addressing a public meeting, Yechuri also requested other parties to join this front.
Unfazed by the organisational consequences, Communist Party of India-Marxist stalwart V S Achuthanandan Wednesday said he was dropped from the party politburo a few years back for telling the truth about a corruption case in which state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was facing inquiry.