CPI-M asks Buddhadev to continue as West Bengal CM

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has told West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee to continue in office, hours after he offered to resign owning moral responsibility for the party's electoral defeat in the state after 34 years of continuous rule.
West Bengal Industry and Commerce Minister Nirupam Sen and CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat reportedly told Bhattarcharjee that he should not think of resigning, as the party's politburo is in the process of assessing the reasons for the electoral defeat.
Tripura Chief Minister and senior CPI-M leader Manik Sarkar is reported to have said that there is no question of Karat or any of the CPI-M leadership resigning as of this moment.
These statements came as the politburo has completed a two-hour-long meeting in the national capital and is expected to resume deliberations in the afternoon.
CPI-M sources said that the meeting of the politburo will go on till late in the evening. They said there will not be a press conference.
It was stated that the party's state secretaries have been asked to give their respective reports and meet with the central leadership to formalise a national report on the reasons for the electoral loss.
Smarting from its electoral drubbing, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo met Monday without two crucial members -- West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.

Dismissing speculation that Bhattacharya had stayed away as a sign of protest over the way the party had handled its election strategy, a party leader said he was in Kolkata to look after the 'law and order situation in the post poll scenario'.
Balakrishnan, it was learnt, had arrived here Sunday to take part in the meeting but had to rush back after four people were killed in police firing in Thiruvananthapuram.
Biman Bose, chairperson of West Bengal's ruling Left Front, also rejected as 'gossip' reports that Bhattacharya had offered to resign from the chief minister's post following the Left rout in Lok Sabha elections in the state.
The CPI-M, in its worst performance ever, managed to win only 16 seats all over India. In total, the four-party Left grouping got 22 seats.