KOLKATA: The CPM top brass in New Delhi may have acted by the book in showing veteran communist leader Somnath Chatterjee the red card, but at Alimuddin Street, the nerve centre of CPM's operations in West Bengal, some leaders are uneasy about repercussions. ( Watch )

It is believed that senior CPM leaders, from Biman Bose to Nirupam Sen, leave aside Chatterjee's mentor Jyoti Basu, were not ready for an abrupt end to a 40-year long political association with Chatterjee.

Questions have also sprung up among party ranks as well. Party insiders are yet to reconcile with the process that turned a hero into a renegade within a day.

"What we came to know from the media is that the party has left it to the Speaker to take his own decision. Senior party leaders including the party general secretary made the comment and also issued written statements till July 19. CPM state secretary Biman Bose also clarified that party didn't issue any whip on the Speaker on the eve of the trust vote in Parliament. If there was no directive, why then did the party expel him?" said a senior Kolkata CPM leader.

However, a sizable section within the Bengal CPM welcomed the party step. "Somnath Chatterjee was throwing party discipline haywire. If veteran CPM leader such as Nripen Chakrabarty can be expelled for flouting party discipline, why can't Somnath. Look at Kerala. The party has suspended two senior leaders from politburo. Chatterjee's case is a loss for me given the long association I had with him," said CPM MP Rupchand Pal.

Party leaders close to Chatterjee in West Bengal recollected how CPM leaders in Delhi had once cornered Saifuddin Chowdhury and dropped him from the central committee finally leading to his exit from the party. When contacted Chowdhury said: "It is CPM's loss that the party could not keep an asset like Somnath Chatterjee in its fold. I would have been happy if Chatterjee put in his papers as Speaker and also resigned from the party instead of drawing the party's ire which he doesn't deserve," Chowdhury said.

A large section of middle-level party leaders in CPM's North 24 Parganas are taken aback by the CPM's disciplinary action. "Our party state secretary told members in the North 24 Parganas district meeting that leaders should have handled Chatterjee properly. Later, leaders conceded that Somnath Chatterjee was not an ordinary MP, and hence there should have been as asterisk, placed beside Chatterjee's name. The mishandling of the situation is apparent," said a CPM North 24 Parganas district secretariat member.

What made things worse for the CPM were secret parleys, party leaders Sitaram Yechury and Biman Bose held with Chatterjee after July 9, the day when the Left leaders went to the President to convey that they were no longer with the UPA. Bose didn't ever tell the media that he went to Chatterjee's Delhi residence on July 20 to convey to him the CPM central committee desire that he step down as Speaker after the trust vote. The party never came up with this directive in public fearing that such a fatwa would have a repercussion among political circles.

Instead, CPM leaders waited for Chatterjee to toe the party whip and step down on July 22. Prior to Chatterjee's talks with Yechury and Biman Bose, the Speaker had called on Jyoti Basu at his Salt Lake residence and said he would like to continue as Speaker for sometime. Basu told him about the party decision and left it to Chatterjee to chart his own course. Basu also conveyed Chatterjee’s views to the CPM general secretary who didn't accept it.

According to party insiders, Basu loyalists such as Somnath Chatterjee, Subhas Chakrabarty were not at ease with Prakash Karat. Chatterjee has expressed his dismay with CPM actions in private circles as well. He had slowly distanced himself from party activities and didn’t attend the CPM Party Congress at Coimbatore. The CPM general secretary took exception to his absence and dropped him from the CPM central committee, much to the dislike of Jyoti Basu.