CPM okays campaigning by Somnath

 “We are appealing to all sections of the masses to vote for us, to support us, and Somnath Chatterjee is also a part of the masses. We cannot omit him from the masses,” CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said here.

“If he wants to campaign, it’s ok,” Yechury said in reply to a query on the official party stand on the state housing minister Gautam Deb’s invitation to Chatterjee to address a rally at Dum Dum in suburban Kolkata, in his favour.

Deb who is also the CPM Central Committee member, claimed on Thursday that Chatterjee would address an election rally in his constituency Dum Dum on April 24. Significantly, Left Front chairman and CPM Politburo member Biman Bose is also slated to be present there on that day. It would be interesting if the two leaders share the same dias and if they do, it will definitely be a clear signal that the Bengal CPM would be exerting pressure on the party’s central leadership for an honourable rehabilitation of the former LS Speaker.

While the former Speaker did not turn down Deb’s invite, he maintained he would take a final decision sometime next week.