Basu with his grandson at home on Monday. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Calcutta, April 8: Jyoti Basu today said Subhas Chakraborty should get berths in both the CPM state secretariat and the central committee.

“I want Subhas to be in both. The new state secretariat will be formed after the rural polls. Let us see what happens,” Basu said on the sidelines of a party programme in his Salt Lake house this evening.

“I have also heard that a slot has been left vacant in the new central committee. I will talk to them (the central leadership),” he added.

Chakraborty, who has never concealed his admiration for Basu and often placed him above the collective wisdom of the party, got the much-needed support from his mentor after being denied entry into the central committee at the party congress in Coimbatore.

Chakraborty had been groomed by Pramode Dasgupta in the late seventies as part of a team of young Turks that also included Anil Biswas, Biman Bose, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Shyamal Chakraborty.

But transport minister Chakraborty, known to be temperamental and a loose cannon, has lost ground in the regimented CPM hierarchy.

His junior, industries minister Nirupam Sen, is in the politburo. Three others who joined the party after Chakraborty — housing minister Gautam Deb, panchayat subcommittee convener Madan Ghosh and education front apparatchik Mridul De — made it to the 87-member central committee at the congress.

The central committee has a higher rank but the state secretariat wields more power.

Party insiders said general secretary Prakash Karat did not favour Chakraborty’s inclusion in the committee when the subject was raised during an informal interaction with the state leadership.

“Prakash had to intervene formally and censure Subhasda after his Tarapith episode. The issue was discussed in the central committee. With Subhasda’s penchant for kicking up controversies at the cost of the government and the party, the leadership does not want to promote him as a senior leader,” a committee member said.

Chakraborty went to the Tarapith Kali temple and offered flowers last year, embarrassing fellow communists.

He has stood by the chief minister of late, but the tension between them has come to the fore on issues like the Cricket Association of Bengal polls in which Chakraborty backed Jagmohan Dalmiya while Bhattacharjee threw his weight behind Prasun Mukherjee.

However, Chakraborty’s popularity among the rank and file, his ability to mobilise people and resources, his image of a wronged man and, above all, Basu’s affection have made him a force to reckon with. “Whether he is in the politburo or not, Basu is still considered an umpire in internal disputes. If Basu throws his weight behind Subhasda, he may be able to break the barrier,’’ said a state committee member close to Chakraborty.

Chakraborty said: “I hold what he (Basu) says in the highest of esteem.”

State party secretary Biman Bose declined comment.