Calcutta, March 7: Biman Bose today cited Jyoti Basu’s idealism to contrast it with the influx of self-servers and opportunists into the party that has eroded the CPM’s popular base.

The CPM state secretary reminded those gathered to pay homage to the former chief minister at a meeting organised by the South 24-Parganas Left Front committee how Basu had volunteered to be a “whole-timer” in the nascent communist party against a lucrative career as a lawyer after returning from England.

“He didn’t care to earn huge sums of money as a barrister. But today, we hardly see such eagerness to be a party whole-timer among our members in high-income groups,’’ Bose said in Garia.

He asked cadres to go back to the people, hinting at the party’s alienation from its support base. He singled out the “Trinamul-Maoist nexus” as the main enemy of the ruling Left.

The party’s Calcutta district committee that concluded a three-day extended meeting today also echoed Bose on his worry of the influx of self-servers into the party.

As the meeting was for stocktaking for the coming civic elections to 82 municipal bodies across the state, including Calcutta Municipal Corporation, the documents placed before the meeting admitted that a large section of the party cadres was involved in promoting real estate, land speculation and even in running liquor shops.

Participants also complained about corruption in the upper echelons of the party and sought “meaningful rectification”, the current buzzword in the CPM.