Kolkata, March 12 Two senior leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo member and the party's West Bengal state secretary Md Salim, and central committee member Sujan Chakraborty, a former leader of the Left Legislative parties in the West Bengal Assembly -- are unlikely to contest the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state scheduled later this year.
The matter was discussed at the state secretariat meeting of the party.
A state secretariat member said that the views of both Salim and Chakraborty were sought during the meeting, and both indicated that instead of contesting themselves, they would prefer to travel across the state to campaign for the party in the polls.
Traditionally, state secretaries of the CPI-M in West Bengal have refrained from contesting elections.
The trend was first set by late Pramod Dasgupta, the first state secretary of the party in West Bengal and also one of the first nine politburo members of the CPI-M after the party split from the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1964, with Puchalapalli Sundarayya as its first general secretary.
However, Salim’s predecessor as state secretary had been an exception. When he assumed the post, he was already a party legislator and also served as the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.
After becoming state secretary, Salim contested two elections -- the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections -- but was defeated both times.
“As regards Chakraborty, the other state secretariat members insisted that he contest. But he said he would prefer to travel across the state and campaign for other party candidates instead of contesting himself,” the state secretariat member said.
He also said that, as of now, it has been decided that only two state secretariat members -- Minakshi Mukherjee and Palas Das -- will contest the Assembly elections this time.
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