CPI(M) Central Committee meet begins

The crucial meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee, the first after the party's electoral debacle, began here today in the backdrop of the Maoist siege of Lalgarh in Left-ruled West Bengal.     

The meeting is being attended by all top CPI(M) leaders, including West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhdeb Bhattacharjee.     

The CPI(M) Politburo yesterday held detailed discussion on the emerging situation in Lalgarh, where an operation is on to flush out the Maoists, besides reviewing its organisational problems that led to its worst-ever poll performance.     

The "self-critical" review of the party's electoral performance, which saw its Lok Sabha strength declining from 42 to 16, was taken up at the Politburo meeting, party sources said. The findings of the review would be placed before the two-day meeting of the Central Committee.     

The Central Committee would finalise measures to rectify the drawbacks so as to enable the party to confidently face assembly polls in its bastions of West Bengal and Kerala in 2011.