The CPM central committee on Monday rejected the West Bengal unit’s electoral alliance with the Congress but stopped short of announcing any disciplinary action to avert a split in the party.
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He added that there are certain weaknesses to the tax legislation that need to be addressed. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also said that the State government supports the GST Bill.
Analysts said that an all-party meeting will help parties find common ground.
Mishra was at times supported by party leaders from West Bengal but others kept on insisting that unlike Bengal, no where else the party chose to oppose the well established and traditional party line of having no ties with the Congress.
After the first central committee meeting since the party saw one of its worst electoral performance in West Bengal, Yechury said that the CPM has chose to disband the Congress-CPM electoral alliance in the state.
“The Central Committee concluded that the electoral tactics adopted in West Bengal was not in consonance with the Central Committee decision not to have an alliance or understanding with the Congress”, Yechury told journalists after the meeting.
But Bengal CPM leaders put up a strong argument at the Central Committee, saying, “If there is no party, there can’t be no party line”.
On the face of it, the two factions appeared unified on the party’s position as they opted for value-neutral terminology and refrained from declaring whether a mistake was committed in West Bengal or not. However, the state committee favoured continuing an understanding with the Congress to fight the Trinamool Congress government in the state.
Dr Mishra is a Politburo member who defended the alliance even after the elections and offered to resign on the issue last week.
“The Central Committee now in session in New Delhi has made a decision to expel Sangwan from the primary membership of the party for gross indiscipline”, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said in a statement. While a powerful section thinks Sangwan will have to move out of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) since it is the women’s wing of CPM from which she has resigned, some think Sangwan can still work.
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Sangwan, who was a CC member, further said the majority note of the Politburo had presented to the 101-member Committee a report describing the electoral tactics adopted in the state as a “violation of the party’s political line”.
