CM Mamata Banerjee declines CPI(M)’s invite for inauguration of Jyoti Basu research centre

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to skip the inauguration of the research centre named after Jyoti Basu, the late nonagenarian Indian Marxist and former CM.

The event is taking place on Friday and she has been invited by the Left party.

Despite the invitation from the state CPI(M) leadership, she will not be attending citing her administrative preoccupations.

Confirming the development, CPI(M) central committee member from West Bengal Robin Deb said that the veteran party leader and the Left Front chairman in West Bengal Biman Bose had personally invited Mamata Banerjee to be present at the inauguration.

“However, we have been informed by the state secretariat that the Chief Minister would not be able to be present at the programme,” Deb confirmed.

The inauguration of the research centre will be done on the occasion of the 15th death anniversary of the former and longest-ever chief minister of West Bengal in the presence of CPI(M)’s politburo coordinator and former party general secretary Prakash Karat.

CPI(M)’s state secretary in West Bengal Md Salim and party politburo member Dr Suryakanta Mishra will also be present on the occasion.

Explaining the rationale behind inviting Mamata Banerjee to the event, a senior state committee member of CPI(M) said that since the said research centre will have an independent identity and since it is named after the former Chief Minister, the party leadership decided to invite the current Chief Minister at the inauguration function.

“There is nothing political about it. But now we have been informed from the state secretariat that the Chief Minister will not be able to be present at the inauguration because of her administrative preoccupations,” the state committee member said.

From Friday, the CPI(M)'s central committee meeting will also start at New Town on the northern outskirts of Kolkata. The political resolutions for the forthcoming party Congress might be adopted at the two-day central committee meeting starting from Friday.

The party Congress is scheduled in April this year at Madurai in Tamil Nadu, where the party will get its new general secretary, which has been lying vacant since the demise of the former party general secretary Sitaram Yechury last year.