Kolkata, Sep 28 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) began a politburo meeting here Friday, to be followed by a three-day central committee meet, with the Indo-US nuclear deal figuring high on the agenda.
The meeting comes in the wake of reported differences between the West Bengal faction of CPI-M led by reformists like Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and hardliners like party general secretary Prakash Karat.
The politburo and the central committee are to discuss how to go ahead with the party’s bitter opposition to the nuclear deal without toppling the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that they prop up, party sources said.
Several party leaders from West Bengal and Kerala are reported to be against an early election that could follow the central government’s fall in the event of a withdrawal of Left support.
“We don’t want to bring down the government on the nuclear issue. It’s up to the government to decide whether they want to continue (with us) or not,” politburo member S.R. Pillai said here Thursday.
Karat has said the party will discuss the nuclear issue and the political situation in the country.
The party may ask for a national law to govern international treaties – so that all treaties have to be ratified by parliament.