New Delhi, April 7: Communist Party of India (Male)? No way, says Prakash Karat.

His party cannot be accused of male chauvinism. The ?M? stands very much for the philosophy of the man it swears by ? Marx.

Patriarchy, however, seems to be ruling the CPM?s own ?family?. The party?s top echelons have remained a male bastion for over four decades. The politburo ? its apex body ? does not have a single woman member while the 80-strong central committee has only eight women.

The lopsided balance has remained over the years though the CPM has a vibrant women?s mass organisation ? the All India Democratic Women?s Association (AIDWA) ? and has been rooting for 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures.

But Karat, a senior member of the politburo, denies that his party has not been entirely fair to women. ?We are not the Communist Party of India (Male),? he said after delegates at the party?s 18th congress this morning moved an amendment to the political resolution underlining the need to take up issues of women?s rights and various forms of gender discrimination.

The delegates said these issues should not be left to the AIDWA alone and the CPM, as a party, should also deal with them. ?For instance, the CPM could take up an issue like the declining female sex ratio,? Karat said.

This is the first time that the CPM leadership has, at an official conclave, included gender issues in its political agenda. Could this be a prelude to electing more women in the central committee and opening the door for their entry into the politburo? Karat dodged a direct reply. ?Men can also take up these issues,? he said. ?Over the years the party has elected more women in the central committee.?

But the ratio is still grossly disproportionate.

Former AIDWA general secretary and Karat?s wife Brinda Karat could be the first woman to become a member of the politburo, the party?s highest decision-making body, at the end of the ongoing congress in Delhi.

Brinda, who has been strongly critical of the gender bias in all parties, including her own, entered the central committee in 1995 but quit three years later on the ground that the CPM was not increasing its representation of women in decision-making bodies. There were then only three women in the central committee.

She, however, rejoined the central committee after the CPM decided to include five more women members at the Hyderabad congress in 2002 ? an increase of six over nine years from 1993.

Women leaders in both the CPM and the CPI have been voicing their discontent at the imbalance. The late Geeta Mukherjee, who was a CPI member of the Lok Sabha, had said the communist parties, though considered ?revolutionary and progressive?, were loath to give women positions they deserve. She cited as examples the presence of a sprinkling of women MLAs in the Bengal and Kerala assemblies.

Women delegates at the congress have called for more women?s participation in the party organisation. ?I am sure there will be more women from the lowest to the highest strata,? said Subhashini Ali, a central committee member.