The CPI(M) is facing acute dearth of young leaders who could take the mantle from old war horses like Biman Bose and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Sources revealed, that party satraps feel that at this critical juncture, young dynamic leaders could give the party a new lease of life just as Subhas Chakraborty, Shymal Chakraborty and Anil Biswas had done in the late 60s.
“The Congress and BJP have lined up a bright and brilliant second rung of leadership while the Trinamul Congress is a party of the young. If we have to woo back the voters, we must project new faces with novel ideas,” a secretariat member said, adding that the paucity of young blood is not limited to Bengal only, it also extends to party headquarters in Delhi and Kerala too.
“And like any other party, without next generation leaders our party may sink into a greater void, especially in the changed political scenario where a vibrant Mamata Banerjee has been playing all her cards to prove that the Communists are only obsessed with ideological dogmas without any iota of reality, a Marxist ideologue said, adding that leadership and ideology are conjoined. “Debatable as the idea may be of which comes first, ideology or leadership, the fact is that nothing can change unless there are people to initiate the change,” he explained.
“Going by the Communist convention, a leader is not considered mature unless he crosses 60. But at this critical juncture, when not only party ideology but even Bengal’s social fabric faces a serious threat from destructive forces, we are forced to revise this convention,” a state secretariat member said. He added that taking a leaf out of the book of stalwarts like late Promode Dasgupta, P.C. Joshi and P. Sundarayya, the Marxist mandarins want to give greater responsibilities to young, energetic and articulate party leaders.
Significantly, Dasgupta and Sundarayya had groomed a group of “young guards” who later emerged as the face of the CPI(M).
Party insiders in Kolkata said it has been decided to bring the “young guards” to the forefront once again both to build up a second rung of leadership as well as to take on the Trinamul Congress’ young and vocal leaders. The CPI(M) top brass is learnt to have chosen at least half-a-dozen “young” leaders like Ritabrata Banerjee, Satarup Ghosh, Kaustav Chatterjee, Kollol Roy to be groomed.