With Basu in mind, Karat sets politburo stage in Kolkata

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CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has requested state secretary Biman Bose to host the next politburo meeting in Kolkata so that veteran leader Jyoti Basu, now designated a 'permanent invitee', can attend it.

The politburo meeting, scheduled to be held on April 29, will focus on the strategy for the panchayat elections set for May 11, 14 and 18.

It will also discuss Basu's request for the induction of the controversial Subhas Chakraborty, a senior leader and minister, in the central committee or the state secretariat, now that Chakraborty has missed his chance for a politburo berth.

"Prakash Karat had phoned me on Sunday to make arrangements for the politburo meeting in Kolkata," Biman Bose said. "But this time there will be no meeting of the CC."

The ailing Basu would attend the meeting.

The politburo is the executive body of the 87-member CC or central committee, the party's highest policy making body. Usually, the politburo's meetings are ratified by the CC.

Meanwhile, politburo member Sitaram Yechury called on Jyoti Basu today at Basu's Salt Lake residence. Yechury, here to attend a railway programme as a Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal, is reported to have made some caustic comment earlier about Basu's public statements on Chakraborty's induction.

However, on Monday, Yechury told reporters that he had made no such statement.

"There are very few politicians who have the courage to admit their mistakes," Yechury said, emerging from his meeting with Basu.

Last week, Basu, after having voiced in public his anguish at the party's refusal to give Chakraborty a CC berth, had stated that he had been wrong in making public statements on the party's internal matters.