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| Gautam Deb |
Calcutta, Jan. 29: The CPM state leadership today foisted Gautam Deb, a state secretariat and central committee member, on the faction-ridden North 24-Parganas unit, springing the former housing minister as an eleventh-hour “consensus” choice for the secretary’s post.
Deb, who replaces octogenarian Amitava Basu, was chosen as the district secretary on the last day of the North 24-Parganas CPM conference that further widened the rift among the party factions.
“The state leadership tried to avoid voting to elect a secretary. Deb would not have had a chance had there been voting. He has become secretary only because of the state leadership,” said a source.
On the concluding day of the four-day party conference, CPM state secretary Biman Bose and two state secretariat members — Benoy Konar and Raghunath Kusari — were present at the conference venue in Dum Dum. Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was present yesterday.
The cracks in the party surfaced several times during the conference, which started on January 26. The differences, however, hit a peak during the process of selecting a successor to Basu, who had expressed a desire to opt out on health grounds.
According to party sources, former Dum Dum MP Amitava Nandy and former Kamarhati MLA Manas Mukherjee were the two main contenders while Deb’s name popped up only at the last minute.
As there were reservations about both Nandy and Mukherjee, the leadership’s plan of selecting a consensus candidate — voting is permitted by the party constitution but the leaders try to avoid it to present a united face — suffered a jolt.
“The district committee approved Deb as the new secretary after some members proposed his name. But this was only after Alimuddin Street had broached the idea and ensured that he would be the new incumbent,’’ said a party leader.
“The leadership’s reluctance towards voting is well known. Had Deb been a contender from the beginning, proposing his name would have been difficult,” he added.
Some sources in the district unit also hinted that proposing Deb’s name at the last minute was part of a well-thought-out strategy to keep Nandy — not an Alimuddin favourite — out of the race.
Before the Assembly elections, Bhattacharjee had made it a point to say at almost every election meeting in North 24-Parganas that “hot-headed’’ leaders should leave the party. It was known that the former chief minister was hitting out at Nandy and Tarit Topdar, former MP from Barrackpore.
The outcome of the conferences in Hooghly and Nadia had clearly shown the leadership’s efforts to avoid voting and choose a third candidate to maintain a balance between the factions.
In Hooghly, former higher education minister Sudarshan Roychowdhury was appointed district secretary replacing a member of the old guard, Benode Das. The objective was to counter the factions owing allegiance to former CPM MP Anil Basu and another former party MP, Rupchand Pal, and his loyalist Sunil Sarkar.
In Nadia, Sumit De was appointed district secretary in place of four-time secretary Ashu Ghosh to neutralise two factions, led by former party MP Alokesh Das and former zilla parishad sabhadhipati Rama Das.
“It is true that voting is a democratic process but it does not always throw up the right candidate and that’s why there is always an effort to find out a consensus candidate through a process of consultation. That’s why the conferences are held,” said a party leader.
As Alimuddin’s choice, Deb has a difficult task cut out for him as he will have to steer the party in a faction-ridden district, which has an array of problems ranging from agrarian distress to industrial closures.
According to party secretary Bose, the incumbent can do the job properly. “He can get along well with various sections of the district leadership. That is why he was chosen for the task,” Bose said.
Bose’s expression of confidence, however, did not mute the discontent among other factions, unhappy with Alimuddin’s role in the choice of the new district secretary.
“Deb’s role in the run-up to the election came under attack during the conference. Besides, he doesn’t have majority support in the district. We don’t know how he will run the unit,” a leader said.
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