CPI-M reviews poll debacle in WB

After its drubbing in West Bengal in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the state unit of CPI-M today began a two-day meeting to analyse reasons behind its poor performance in the Left Front-ruled state.     

The party, which had won 26 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2004 polls, won only nine this time.     

The meeting is being attended by CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member Sitaram Yechury.     

Yechury told reporters that the CPI-M would analyse the poll results in detail.     

When asked if the party leadership in West Bengal would be changed, he replied, "Let the meeting be over. Only after that we can talk about it".     

On political violence at Khejuri in Nandigram, Yechury said the main opposition party in the state, Trinamool Congress, had resorted to undemocratic way to spread its influence.     

"30 years ago people had rejected the opposition parties, they would not accept them now too," he asserted.     

Khejuri, a Marxist stronghold adjacent to Nandigram in East Midnapore district has witnessed post-poll violence and CPI-M offices have been burnt down by rival political parties.     

Yechury claimed that the opposition parties are playing politics over distribution of relief material to Cyclone Aila victims.