Pramanik

Calcutta, May 27: Five-time CPM member of Parliament Radhika Ranjan Pramanik was expelled from the party today, largely because of his association with Mamata Banerjee.

State CPM secretary Anil Biswas announced the verdict at the party headquarters on Alimuddin Street. The decision to give the boot to the MP from Mathurapur in South 24-Parganas was taken at a meeting of the state secretariat, he said.

“We had served him a showcause notice and then framed a chargesheet under section 19/13 of our party constitution. He kept contact with Trinamul, spoke against the party at public meetings and press conferences and indulged in other anti-party activities,” said Biswas.

He added that the party’s MP from Hooghly, Rupchand Pal, had submitted a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi in April asking why Pramanik’s Lok Sabha membership should not be rejected. “The matter is under the Speaker’s consideration now,” said Biswas.

Pramanik , also an invitee member of the district CPM committee, was showcaused in January. Today, he appeared unfazed when told about the decision. “I was expecting it. I wonder why the party took so long to take this decision,” he said.

The MP felt the CPM had failed to address the questions he raised. “I asked some pertinent questions over its so-called democratic centralism and ambiguous relationship with the Congress and persons like Laloo Prasad Yadav, Jayalalithaa and Mulayam Singh Yadav. I also wanted to know how the party intended to bring about revolution by being part of a parliamentary democracy. There are many other MPs who, too, are not happy with the goings on. Only I had the guts to revolt.”

Biswas said this was not the first time the CPM was expelling an MP. In the 1970s, an MP from Burdwan, Bhagaban Das, was thrown out, he said.