CPI-M asks top leadership to place fresh draft on political line

New Delhi: Marred by serious differences over reasons that led to its decline and the way out, CPI-M's Central Committee on Wednesday asked the top leadership to place a fresh draft on the political-tactical line to be adopted by the Left party to rejuvenate its organisation and overcome political isolation.

The Central Committee, after discussing the draft report of the political-tactical line, "authorised" the 15-member Politburo "to present a revised draft on the lines suggested by it for approval in the next meeting" of the 93-member panel, slated in January in Hyderabad.

Differences in perception within CPI-M had come to fore at the four-day meeting which concluded today over how to overcome the growing political isolation in the national political arena.

While the official draft was virtually challenged by a counter note moved by senior leader Sitaram Yechury, another note was moved by Politburo member B V Raghavulu too reflected divergence of views. There were five more notes moved by Central Committee (CC) members.

Downplaying the differences, CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat said, "Everyone in the party has full freedom to put forth their views and get them debated", adding that all the seven notes, portraying differing opinions, were debated by the CC.

He said the CC, during the debate, listed out seven issues on the basis of which the draft political-tactical line would be revised. The final document would be placed before the Party Congress in April next year.

The issues gear around the lack of independent growth of the party since the 13th Congress in 1988 just before the neo -liberalisation process started in 1991 and the lack of progress on forming a Left Democratic Front as an alternative to all the "bourgeois-landlord" parties.