Can’t accept expulsion of personal aides VS to Karat

KOLKATA: CPI (M) stalwart and Kerala Opposition Leader V.S. Achuthanandan has conveyed to party General Secretary Prakash Karat at the three-day CPI (M) Central Committee meeting at Kolkata on Thursday that he could not accept the decision taken by the CPI (M) State Committee to expel three members of his personal staff from the party on the charge of leaking out party information to the media.

Achuthanandan is learnt to have told Karat that his personal staff had not leaked out party information and that action against them was part of taking vengeance on him.

Meanwhile, sources say the party State Committee has complained to Central Committee that Achuthanandan has breached the party discipline and is challenging the State Committee.

CPI-M central committee meeting starts in Kolkata

Keeping an eye on the upcoming budget session of Parliament and the general elections in 2014, the central committee members of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) met here to discuss prevailing economic situation in the country on Thursday.

The CPI-M top leadership, including party General Secretary Prakash Karat, politburo members Sitaram Yechury and former chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were also present during the first day of the three-day long brainstorming session.

"Very soon the budget session is going to commence. The economic situation is very bad right now; there is a very severe economic slowdown. So in that situation the people demand for a better livelihood. So, we will decide that what shorts of initiative party should take along with the left parties," said Yechury.

"Another agenda before the central committee is to discuss the current political situation and also to discuss the party's tactics that we will employ in elections that are going to come in this year, in various states and in preparation for the next year's general elections," he added.

A growth rate below 6 percent for the third quarter in a row is damaging for a country that aspires to near double-digit expansion to provide jobs for its burgeoning population.

Capital investment dropped to 32 percent of GDP in the fiscal year that ended in March 2012.

The slump makes it tougher for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to fund flagship welfare programmes ahead of a national election due in mid-2014.