Pratik-Ur Rahaman, a prominent youth face of the CPM, has written to the state secretary, Md. Salim, that he decided to quit all party committees and give up party membership.

In his letter sent to Salim on Sunday, Rahaman wrote: “...I am a party whole-timer. In recent times, I have not been able to adjust to quite a few thoughts and actions of the party’s state and district leadership, and I was facing a mental dilemma. In such a situation, I have decided to relieve myself of the responsibilities as a state committee and district committee member as well as give up my party membership.”

Rahaman did not stop with his missive to Salim. He posted the letter to the party WhatsApp group before quitting it.

After the resignation letter of the former president of the SFI’s Bengal unit was widely circulated, CPM supporters took to social media platforms and criticised the state leadership for not being able to handle a leader like Rahaman, who is known for his connection with the grassroots.

Speaking to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity, a senior CPM leader said: “Pratik-Ur Rahaman’s resignation could be the first of many if the state leadership did not correct its stance and prioritised people’s movement. Several workers perished in a devastating fire on the eastern fringes of Calcutta last month, but did you see any movement by the party that is worth mentioning? Instead, we prioritised meeting a corrupt and communal leader like Humayun Kabir.”

Although both Salim and Rahaman refused to comment on the letter, describing it as an “internal matter of the party”, a CPM leader said that the young leader’s resentment with the factionalism raging within the South 24-Parganas unit and Salim’s recent meeting with Kabir was well known.

“It is an internal matter of the party. I am not ready to discuss it publicly,” Rahaman told The Telegraph on Monday.

A CPM leader, however, wondered how an internal communication of the party could reach a Trinamool Congress leader within 20 minutes of Rahaman posting it to the state committee’s WhatsApp group.

“Those who leaked the letter did it with malicious intent. They should be identified and exposed,” the leader said.

Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh had shared on his social media handle Rahaman’s letter to Salim.

Rahaman had set tongues wagging with a social media post shortly after the Salim-Kabir meeting. In a tongue-in-cheek post on his social media handle, Rahaman wrote: “Whatever it can be, without ideology and morality there can be no communist party.”

Kabir had recently been suspended from Trinamool after he had announced a Babri mosque in Murshidabad district. He started the construction of the mosque and also launched the Janata Unnayan Party.

Asked about the post, Rahaman, who had unsuccessfully contested against Trinamool’s second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee from Diamond Harbour in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, said as a communist, he was only holding up the mirror to himself. CPM insiders, however, did not fail to point to the timing and content of the post.

“There were some within the party who were defending Salim’s controversial parleys with Kabir, that too at a five-star hotel. They even went to the extent of saying that upholding morality was not the sole responsibility of the CPM. In a way, Rahaman voiced the sentiment of a large section of the CPM that did not agree with the way the present Alimuddin regime is leading the party and its desperation to win seats at any cost,” a veteran leader said.