Basu at the news conference on Sunday. (Ananda Das)

June 10: The CPM central committee today accepted the Bengal unit’s decision to expel former Arambagh MP Anil Basu for “anti-party activities” but shied away from acting against Kerala veteran V.S. Achuthanandan for utterances against the southern state’s Left leadership.

Sources said the decision was taken at a meeting in Delhi of the CPM central committee, the highest decision-making body of the party.

“Anil Basu has been expelled for anti-party activities,” a central committee member said in Delhi.

Hours later, Basu held a media conference at his home in Chinsurah, Hooghly, around 5pm and criticised the CPM. “Lal pataka karur babar noi, lal pataka janaganer (the red flag does not belong to any individual, it belongs to the people). Communists do not live at Alimuddin Street alone. I will work with and for people,” he said.

Basu, criticised for using distasteful language against Mamata Banerjee in the run-up to last year’s Bengal elections, had been suspended from the party for three months by the state committee on April 29 on charges of factionalism, breach of discipline and his alleged role in the Hooghly zilla parishad medicine scam. The former MP had been accused of extending undue favours to some persons by using his clout.

The central committee endorsed the Bengal unit’s decision today, the sources said. A formal announcement is likely tomorrow.

After his suspension in April, Basu had held a news conference, where his wife Sabita had threatened to file a defamation suit against CPM state secretary Biman Bose.

Earlier, at the February state conference of the CPM, Basu was dropped from the newly constituted state committee because of his “tainted” image.

Shortly after his three-month suspension, Basu had questioned the process in which the disciplinary action was taken against him. He had said that according to the CPM constitution, the party should have got its decision approved by a higher committee — in this case the central committee.

Using this “loophole”, he had participated in some party programmes during his suspension but did not address any meeting.

But the media conference with his wife made matters worse. Sabita had accused Bose of not urging the media to stop airing the news that her husband had been suspended on the ground of corruption.

Alimuddin Street had taken strong exception to the move.

The politburo and the central committee refrained from acting against former chief minister Achuthanandan for his public utterances against the Kerala leadership of the party headed by long-time rival Pinarayi Vijayan.

The sources said the central committee asked the Kerala unit to resolve the issue at the state level.

Achuthanandan had publicly taken a position contrary to that of the party on the murder of CPM rebel T.P. Chandrasekharan. VS had even appeared to compare Vijayan with S.A. Dange, the chairman of the undivided Communist Party who was later expelled.

While preliminary investigations pointed to a conspiracy, with Chandrasekharan’s killers suspected to be linked to the CPM, the party has denied the charge and claimed it was a plot by the ruling Congress to defame it.

The sources said Achuthanandan spoke at the central committee meeting and remained firm on his stand that his comments were in the interest of the party. He is even learnt to have demanded a change in the party leadership in Kerala. Vijayan also attended the meeting.

The sources said the leadership did not take any steps against VS because of his popularity in the state — many in the CPM had credited him for the close fight the Left put up in the Kerala Assembly elections last year even though the front lost.