CPI(M) Buddhadeb skips politburo meeting

 West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattarcharjee skipped the CPI(M) politburo meeting here  on Monday amid reports that he has offered to quit following the poll debacle in the state but this was rubbished by a senior leader.       

Bhattacharjee, who alongwith veteran leader Jyoti Basu had voiced their reservations over the Left decision to withdraw support to the UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal issue, is said to be upset over the party rout in the state.       

For the record, politburo member and Left Front chairman Biman Bose described the reports on Bhattacharjee offering to step down as "rubbish".      

"Bhattacharjee is not attending the meeting as he has informed the party that he cannot leave Kolkata due to the prevailing post-poll law and order situation," party sources said.       

Besides Bose, those attending the meeting are CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, Nirupam Sen, Pinarayi Vijayan, M K Pandhe, S R Pillai and Chief Ministers of Kerala and Tripura, V S Achuthanandan and Manik Sarkar respectively.        

The sources said the politburo would do "serious introspection" of the causes of their poll debacle, especially in their citadels of West Bengal and Kerala which face assembly elections in another two years.