CPI-M begins three-day central committee meeting

NEW DELHI - A three-day meeting of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) central committee began here Wednesday with a key agenda of rooting out corruption within the party ranks.

Senior CPI-M leaders are also reviewing the party’s performance at various levels.

“The rectification campaign report and finalising the date for the extended central committee meeting are the two important agenda points,” said a party official.

The discussion on rectification measures will start Thursday, M.K. Pandhe, a member of the CPI-M told reporters here.

The central committee had approved a report on how to rectify things within the party and sent it for discussion to various levels of the party committees.

It will now discuss the crucial report on how to eliminate corruption in the party and stem the trend of “anti-communism” amongst the cadres, said a party leader.

The rectification campaign is expected to be implemented at the top committees of the party - the politburo and the central committee.

An extended central committee meeting is slated to be held around August in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.

The central committee is also making a mid-term appraisal - a review of the party’s performance in various levels after the last party Congress - in the meeting, sources said.

The 19th Party Congress of the CPI-M was held March 29 to April 3, 2008, in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

The politburo, which met here Tuesday evening ahead of the central committee meeting, prepared the mid-term review, said the party sources.

Senior CPI-M leaders, including general secretary Prakash Karat, M.K. Pandhe, V.S. Achuthanandan, Sitaram Yechury, S. Ramachandran Pillai and Pinarayi Vijayan are the prominent leaders among those attending.

The May 5-7 New Delhi meeting will also discuss the political situation at the national level and in the party-ruled states of Kerala and West Bengal, where elections are due next year.

The coming civic body elections in West Bengal are seen as crucial in the context of the Congress fighting elections separately after severing ties with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, said a party leader.

The party would also discuss its failed attempt to form a strong platform against the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Left parties had formed an alliance of 13 parties to move a cut motion in the Lok Sabha to demand roll back of petrol, diesel and fertiliser prices.

However, the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which were part of the alliance, walked out of the Lok Sabha when the house took up the cut motions for vote.