Calcutta, Oct. 17: The state CPM brass today further boosted Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s drive to industrialise Bengal by reaffirming the importance of private capital in development.

State CPM secretary Anil Biswas told a gathering of party supporters here that development with the help of private capital needed to be looked at in the context of the times and outside any ideological straitjacket.

The leadership’s emphasis on private capital for development came when a section of the party is finding it hard to eschew the old ideological approach and let the government lessen its role in development projects.

“In the changing times, the government would have to accept private capital,” Biswas said. “We want development at any cost?. It is impossible to develop Bengal without support from capitalists and we have to accept their conditions.”

The conditions, the CPM politburo member added, will have to be examined carefully. “We will not surrender to the capitalists.”

Biswas admitted that when the Left Front came to power it did not “realise that we will stay on” for such a long time. “Now that we have been in power for 27 years, we have to think of long-term development.”

Addressing a programme to mark the 85th foundation day of the Communist Party in India, Biswas said: “We had decided to take part in the government to offer relief to the people on temporary basis ? by setting up schools and hospitals. But now we have to think about developing the state and initiate long-term measures to set up industries. If we fail to set up industries, the existence of the working class will be at a stake.”

When the new industrial policy was drawn up in 1994, Biswas said it was decided that the government will have to woo investors to the state. “Our government’s financial capability was limited.”

In an echo of the chief minister’s appeals to his party and partners, Biswas said: “We should not oppose new industries. We have to work to bring more of them to the state to offer employment to our people.”