Not allowing Yechury a 3rd term in RS will be 'historic blunder' for CPM

Former LS Speaker Somnath Chatterjee says Karat scuttled his candidature to be President in 2007

After not allowing Jyoti Basu to be the prime minister of India in 1996 and withdrawing their outside support to the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre in 2008, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is on the cusp of committing yet another ‘historic blunder’.

At stake this time is a Rajya Sabha seat. The CPI (M)’s Kerala and West Bengal units are split over whether the party should allow a third Rajya Sabha term to party chief Sitaram Yechury.

The Bengal unit believes that not allowing Yechury a third term would be nothing short of yet another ‘historic