As Jyoti Basu turned 96 on July 8, a number of party comrades gathered to celebrate the occasion, somewhat against party norms. The maverick sports and youth affairs minister, Subhash Chakrabarty, ousted party veteran, Somnath Chatterjee and the diminutive Biman Bose, came to Basu?s residence in Salt Lake to pay their respects. But the absence of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was too conspicuous to be missed and the ailing leader could not overlook it either. ?Where is Buddha?? he murmured.

Bhattacharjee did turn up, a day later. The delay was enough to set in motion another round of speculation about a gnawing gulf between the two leaders. Many, particularly party comrades, wondered: ?Is there a distance between Basu and Buddha??

It?s a question that persists in the party?s rank and file. The comparison between the two CPI(M) stalwarts raises its head increasingly in West Bengal as the three-and-a-half-decade-old Communist edifice in the state seems to be crumbling.

It wasn?t always thus. Old timers still recall the time Basu handed over the leadership mantle to Buddha. ?The party and the people of West Bengal have accepted Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee with delight?, declared Basu about Buddha at a public forum.

Bhattacharjee was only 31 when Basu inducted him in his Cabinet in 1977. Till 2000, Basu led a busy political life. Now at the fag end of his career, Basu is often cast in the role of the ?lonely hero of the CPI(M).? Party sources say that his loneliness became more pronounced after the death of the party?s West Bengal state secretary and Politburo member, Anil Biswas, in 2006.

Today at a time when Buddha?s leadership is virtually under seige inside and outside the party, Basu has little to say about the man he once groomed so carefully. Of course, his sheer physical inability, at least for the past one year, has restrained him from active participation in politics. The number of visitors to Indira Bhawan has reduced sharply. Biman Bose and Shyamal Chakraborty?the two CPI(M) party leaders who are in charge of Basu?s care ? are the only regular visitors.

Basu?s political career started in 1936, at the age of 22, when he became involved in organising Indian students with Communist leanings in the UK. He was a member of the undivided CPI. In 1964 when the party split, Basu was one of the founder Politburo members.

Basu relinquished his office of chief minister in 1999 after an unbroken stint of 24 years?the longest for any chief minister of an Indian state. In a long and turbulent innings, 1996 became a landmark year when he had to refuse the offer of a prime ministerial berth as his party did not deem it appropriate. Basu later described the decision as a ?Himalayan blunder.?

Party insiders admit that in recent months the CPI(M) leadership has committed serial blunders?starting from withdrawal of support from the Congress-led government to voting with the BJP in its bid to topple the UPA, to the evidently cut-and-paste attempt at building a third alternative in the last Lok Sabha polls that backfired. Despite being known to have serious reservations on the CPM?s ?official stand? on several such issues, Basu has not raised his voice openly. Perhaps, one of the party?s most loyal soldiers realises that he is too frail to take up a new ideological battle.

Among the several notable changes that the veteran must now be a spectactor to, is the curious mellowing of the otherwise fire-breathing Mamata Banerjee. Till the 2001 Assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress chief was portrayed as Basu?s enemy number one, and vice versa. But ever since the 2006 Assembly polls in which the Left got a massive mandate, there has been a marked shift in the personal equation between Basu and Banerjee.

In recent times, Banerjee has sent Basu birthday wishes and get-well-soon messages. By all accounts, Banerjee has shifted her target from Basu to his prot?g?, Buddhadeb.