Calcutta, Sept. 10: The question of inducting someone from Bengal into the CPM politburo is not on the agenda for its meeting here on September 12 and 13, but Jyoti Basu said today he would raise the issue.

What is on the slate is a review of the party’s organisational growth. There will also be discussion on the Left’s inc- reasing tension with the Man- mohan Singh government.

“The agenda paper for the meeting that has been sent to me does not mention the matter (member from Bengal). But I will raise the issue. I think one should be inducted from the state,” Basu said.

“My health is not good. Hopefully, I will be able to sit through the meeting.”

Basu iterated his request to relieve him from the politburo to Prakash Karat when the party general secretary met him a few days ago. But the party has yet to accept the request and shifted the venue of the politburo meeting to Calcutta to ensure his presence.

The names of Benoy Konar and Nirupam Sen, both central committee members, have been mentioned as likely candidates for the politburo. After Bengal party secretary Anil Biswas’s death, there has been speculation that one of them will join the CPM’s highest decision-making body.

“Nobody can replace Anilbabu,” said Konar.

“I have enough preoccupations here, besides the problem of frail health. Nirupam (industries minister) would have been better placed had he not been shouldering crucial responsibilities in the government,” he added.

Konar argued that in order for the party to grow more, politburo and central committee members should be based in Delhi, which he or Sen could not be. “Only four or five politburo members are based in Delhi when the party’s work at the centre has increased a lot,” he said.

This is in tune with the leadership’s concerns and plans for expansion in its organisational report adopted at the party congress in Delhi last year. “Not many of the leaders are inclined to leave their home states to work at the party centre,” Hannan Mollah, an MP from Bengal, said.

He and three others assist Karat in expanding the party base in the Hindi heartland and elsewhere.

Admitting that the party had failed to make inroads into the Hindi heartland, Mollah said efforts had been renewed in view of the party’s growing clout at the Centre.

“But it’s time to expand our base as our spirited opposition to the UPA government on people’s issues has received popular appreciation,” he said.

“It (the party) held 100 rallies against UPA policies across the country during August. The politburo and the central committee will review the impact and discuss plans to consolidate it.”