Anil Basu in Arambagh on Tuesday. (Sanchita Chatterjee)

Oct. 22: Anil Basu, whose insensitive remarks on Mamata Banerjee drove the last nail into the Left coffin on the eve of the last Assembly elections, today requested that he be reinstated as he was under “mental strain and agony”.

The request from former Arambagh MP Anil Basu, who was suspended and later expelled in May last year, has come at a time the CPM is in the doldrums in Hooghly.

“I was expelled from the CPM for holding a media conference to articulate my views against the party. I am suffering from mental strain, stress and agony as I am no longer in the organisation,” AnilBasu, a former party whole-timer, said this afternoon.

“That’s why I wrote to Alimuddin Street a few months ago to consider my reinstatement. I have also informed the district secretary,” he added.

The action against Anil Basu was taken after his wife Sabita held a media conference in Hooghly’s Chinsurah, the former MP by her side, and lambasted the CPM leadership, including party state secretary Biman Bose.

The writ of Anil Basu and his bete noire Rupchand Pal ran large in Hooghly when the CPM was in power. Even as Anil Basu got elected as an MP from Arambagh seven times, there were allegations that he used terror tactics to maintain his hold on the area.

Now that Anil Basu is no longer in the CPM, the party has suffered a blow in the Arambagh sub-division with Trinamul sweeping the area in the 2011 Assembly elections and the rural polls this July.

A CPMN source said the Left was in disarray in Arambagh “largely because” of Anil Basu’s absence.

There is little doubt that Anil Basu would not find a more opportune moment to knock on the doors of Alimuddin Street as the organisation is tottering in Hooghly and he could be used to revive the flagging morale of cadres.

Asked if Anil Basu would be reinstated, CPM state secretariat member Rabin Deb said: “There’s no bar on expelled CPM leaders appealing to our party for re-induction.”

In recent months, Anil Basu has attended some CPM events in Hooghly, including two memorial meetings to celebrate former chief minister Jyoti Basu’s birth centenary. A few months ago, Anil Basu was spotted in a crowd that had gathered at Chinsurah to hear CPM politburo member Surjya Kanta Mishra.

Many in the party wondered if Anil Basu’s frail health was the result of his “mental agony”. Asked, he said: “I am 68 now. I have lost weight. I am going for morning walks and have given up smoking. But the point is I am mentally unwell, being outside the party.”