The Central Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, took up a political assessment report by the politburo on the first day of their meeting here on Saturday.

The report has also reportedly observed that general elections would be held in November this year and it has also asked the state unite to gear up for the battle of ballots and cash on the Left campaigns against inflation, price rise and Indo-US nuclear deal.

The assessment of the party leaders was that the confidence vote of July 22 would be “very unpredictable and close.”

“Even though the confidence exuded by the government and the UPA, when the Left parties withdrew support that they would get over 280 votes in favour, has now waned, they would scrape through,” a senior Left leader said.

Even if the government wins the trust vote, "it will not be a smooth affair to run the government as there could be voting on each and every issue. The UPA, we feel, will be under tremendous pressure to cobble a majority for each and every vote," he said.

Regarding the new relationship established between the Left and the BSP, he said this was limited to the trust vote in which the party would vote against the UPA at the Centre, taking a position opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal.

CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat and senior leaders Sitaram Yechury, V S Achutanandan, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Manik Sarkar were among the leaders who participated in the Central Committee meeting and reviewed the political situation.

Even though the “embarrassing” situation arising out of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s defiance of party high command was formally not included in the agenda, some senior leaders said that it was discussed informally.
Ahead of the Central Committee meeting, members of the politburo met for about one-and-half hours. Some like Kerala MP Varkala Radhakrishnan have openly demanded that Chatterjee should quit and there are also those like West Bengal minister Subhash Chakraborty who backed his continuance.

However, the party is not likely to take any “disciplinary” action against the senior Marxist leader as the party doesn’t want to open another front, just hours ahead of the trust vote.

While there have been concerns expressed by some quarters especially from West Bengal on voting alongside the BJP, the party is expected to ratify the decision taken by the top bosses.