Taking a leaf out of the book of stalwarts like the late Promode Dasgupta, P.C. Joshi and P. Sundarayya, the CPI(M) leadership wants to give greater responsibilities to young, energetic and articulate party leaders.
Dasgupta and Sundarayya had groomed a group of “Young Guards”, who later emerged as the face of the CPI(M). Party insiders here said it had been dedcided 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 to be groomed. These leaders, who are younger than today’s party bigwigs, will be “trained” and “tested” in different capacities. The six leaders are Mohammed Salim, Manab Mukherjee, Rabin Deb, Gautam Deb, Sreedip Bhattacharjee and Shamik Lahiri. While the first three have already spent the “trial period” in different fields, the party now wants to prepare them for bigger challenges.
Both chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and West Bengal CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose have been toying with the idea of putting younger leaders in charge of both the organisation and the administration for the past two years. “Going by 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 have been forced to revise this convention,” a state secretariat member said.
The party also acutely feels the lack of younger leaders. “The Congress and BJP have lined up a bright second rung, while the Trinamul Congress is a party of the young. If we have to attract young voters, we must also young leaders,” he added.
There were earlier two views in the party on a leader’s qualities. While Dasgupta and Sundarayya preferred mediocre leaders who had a mass base, Joshi favoured picking the best and brightest. Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury are representatives of the Joshi line, while Biman Bose and Buddhdeb Bhattacharjee were handpicked by Dasgupta. “The new Young Guard has a combination of both types,” he said.