Calcutta, Nov. 12: The CPM has decided to invite to Hashim Abdul Halim's condolence meeting Trinamul leaders who had visited the former Assembly Speaker's home or Alimuddin Street to pay their respects after his death on November 2.
None from the BJP is likely to be invited to the programme, to be held at Ramlila Park near Moulali on November 18, as the party did not send any leader to pay their respects to Halim, whose 29-year stint was the longest among Speakers in the country.
CPM state secretariat member Rabin Deb said this evening: "We have decided that those who visited Halimsaheb's residence or went to Alimuddin Street after his death to pay their respects will be invited to the condolence meeting. Some Trinamul leaders and ministers were there at either of the places. So, invites will be sent to them."
Halim, who died at the age of 80 in a Calcutta nursing home following cardiac arrest, always had cordial relations with Opposition MLAs.
Education minister and Trinamul secretary-general Partha Chatterjee and urban development minister Firhad Hakim had visited Halim's home on November 2.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was not in town on that day, had tweeted her condolences.
Chatterjee said the party was yet to take a call on attending the condolence meeting. "The invite is yet to reach us. We shall think about attending the meeting once we get the invitation," he said.
Asked whether the criterion set by the CPM for extending invites would mean the exclusion of the BJP, Deb said: "We will not say anything beyond the decision that has been taken."
State BJP president Rahul Sinha said none from the party had gone to Halim's house or the state CPM headquarters to pay their respects to him. "But we had sent a condolence message to the party stating that Halimsaheb was a great statesman who had conducted Assembly proceedings without bias for 29 years."
The CPM had invited Mamata to former chief minister Jyoti Basu's condolence meeting in 2010. She had not attended but sent Subrata Mukherjee, now the panchayat minister.
