Bhattacharjee, Mukherjee

Calcutta, Aug. 19: At the CPM central committee meeting this week, Bengal leaders will ask the party to try its best to keep the Manmohan Singh government afloat, an MP confirmed today.

The CPM is expected to decide its strategy at the August 22-23 meeting, where the Bengal contingent will make up about a fourth of the members.

“We will try our best to keep the patient alive while critical surgery is on,” central committee member and MP Mohammed Salim said, drawing an analogy from the medical profession.

“We won’t pull out the life-saving plug till the last flicker, even if the patient’s relatives give up.”

Former chief minister Jyoti Basu is believed to have warned against a “hasty” decision when state party secretary Biman Bose met him last evening. Bengal CPM leaders are believed to be keen to avoid a mid-term poll.

But many state CPM leaders want the party to keep dangling the withdrawal sword over the government’s head while moving towards a “gradual divorce”. They spoke of disbanding the Left-UPA co-ordination committee at some point and offering issue-based support.

“We won’t allow the Opposition to topple the government but keep it in limbo like the minority government of P.V. Narasimha Rao,’’ a central committee member said.

State CPI leaders, too, are mulling issue-based support. But allies RSP and Forward Bloc, who meet the two bigger parties in Delhi tomorrow for a Left Front decision on the crisis, want withdrawal of support.

“We are happy that the CPM has fallen in line. The Left can’t be taken for granted any more by raising the BJP bogey. We want to sever ties with the Congress immediately,’’ RSP state secretary Debabrata Banerjee said.

“We want the government to survive. But if the Congress refuses to relent, we won’t either,’’ Bloc state secretary Asoke Ghosh said.

There was a hint that the allies are hoping the fallout of the crisis may lead the CPM to shelve the planned chemical hub and special economic zones.

“The Opposition has been gaining ground since the CPM deviated from Left ideals. If the party listens to us, the Left Front will retain its seats even if there’s a snap poll,’’ Banerjee said.

Biman Bose, asked if the Bengal CPM wanted a soft line on Manmohan for the sake of their industrialisation drive, said: “The question of the state’s industrialisation is definitely there. But we can’t sell the country’s interests for its sake.”

Asked if the party could afford a mid-term election, he parried the question: “We will see when it happens.’’

Bose and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee briefed the party’s state committee members on the crisis this evening. Bhattacharjee, who spoke to party general secretary Prakash Karat and foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee today, declined to comment to the media.

Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee left for Delhi in the evening for tomorrow’s debate on the nuclear deal in Parliament. While opposing the Indo-US agreement, she slammed the CPM for its “pseudo-protest”.