Resolving to continue the party?s struggles against the ?neo-liberal economic policies?, the CPI(M) nineteenth congress concluded here on Thursday. The new central committee with 87 members and a 15-member politburo, a mix of reformists and hardliners, were also selected with Prakash Karat getting re-elected as its general secretary for another three-year term.
Three new faces, Nirupam Sen, Mohammed Amin and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, were also elected for politburo. The founding members, Jyoti Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjeet, were retained as special invitees in the highest panel of CPI(M) and central committee, respectively.
??Our party congress has charted out the political and tactical line for the next three years. Our struggles against neo liberal economic policies and struggle for alternate programmes will be carry forward in the coming years,?? Karat said addressing the delegates in his concluding speech. Upping the ante against the Sangh parivar, he said ??the entire party will go into the battle against communal forces.??
The focus of the congress will provide the guidelines for the Left-led states, Karat said. ??In the last two years we witnessed a unique phenomenon. People in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura have elected Left governments in unprecedented majority,?? he added.
Apart from Surjeet, senior leader R Umanath is also not there in the new politburo. However, he will continue in the central committee. As man as 12 new members were inducted into the central committee, which include Kerala finance minister TM Thomas Isaac and West Bengal IT minister Gautam Deb.
The new entrant into the politburo, Nirupam Sen is the industries minister Buddhadeb cabinet and is considered as a votary of industrialisation in the state.
CITU general secretary Mohammed Amin, a Rajya Sabha member, is the first Muslim to get a place in the CPI(M) politburo. In the last congress, the party had elected the first woman member, Brinda Karat, to the politburo.
The congress has retained chief ministers VS Achuthanandan, Buddadeb Bhattacharjee and Manik Sarkar, senior leaders S Ramachanran Pillai, Sitaram Yechury, MK Pandhe, Biman Bose, K Varadharajan, B Raghavulu, and Pinarayi Vijayan in the Politburo.