CPM leader Prasenjit Bose quits over support to Pranab Mukherjee

Kolkata: Young CPM leader Prasenjit Bose quit the party protesting against the Politbureau’s decision to back UPa’s Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee. Bose said that the move to support Pranab was a ‘grave error’.
In an open letter, Bose said, “I protest against the decision by the Polit Bureau to support the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee. I consider this to be a grave error which will harm the party and disturb Left unity.”
There was no response from CPM on the resignation of Bose who is the former head of party’s research unit.
Bose, who is perceived to be close to CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, had in the recent Party Congress abstained from voting on CPM’s ideological document as they did not agree with it that termed China and North Korea socialist countries.
“The same leadership is committing yet another costly mistake, refusing to learn anything from the past. Party members are aghast and exasperated that their concerns are falling on deaf ears. Therefore, with great pain and agony, I tender my resignation from the primary membership of the Party,” Bose said.
He also attacked Karat saying the arguments he put forward were “wholly misleading”. “In the absence of any explicit and coherent explanation so far, one can only make two guesses. If the consideration was that the strength of CPI (M) and the Left is numerically too weak to field its own candidate against both Congress and BJP-backed candidates, then the natural choice should have been to abstain from the polls.
“That is the stand adopted by CPI and the RSP and it is an eminently reasonable, transparent and principled position,” he said. Bose’s wife Albina Shakil is a state committee member of CPM’s Delhi unit.
It was not clear whether Shakil, who was an SFI leader in JNU, has also quit the party. Shakil, along with Bose, had also abstained from voting on the ideological document in the Party Congress.
The Left was divided over the Presidential candidate. While the CPM decided to back Pranab, the CPI and RSP said they would abstain from voting.
Meanwhile, Pranab Mukherjee was in Bengal on a two-day visit. The veteran Congress leader had appealed to the Trinamool Congress to support his candidature. He has, however, not made it clear whether he will meet Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeee during the visit.
“The leadership of those parties who have not been able to take a decision, I appeal to them for their support,” he said in response to a question if he would meet Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee during his visit to Kolkata to seek her support.