CPI-M blames Left disunity for council poll reverses

"All the partners are equally responsible for the results," a CPI-M release said as the West Bengal state committee of the party began a two-day meeting here Saturday. The meeting is being held against the backdrop of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's expulsion from the party.

CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat is attending the meeting.

The Left Front had suffered serious setbacks in the rural body polls, losing control of East Midnapore and South 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad - the highest level of the three-tier panchayat system in the state - to the opposition, which also gave a hot chase to the ruling alliance in the two lower rungs of panchayat samitia and gram panchayats.

The party called for identifying shortcomings and building up a strong rapport with the masses.

"Another area of weakness was our inability in taking on the misinformation campaign against us. And, in the post-panchayat scenario, we need to tide over our mistakes though an intense political campaign," the party release said.

Former West Bengal chief minister and nonagenarian party leader Jyoti Basu was present for about 25 minutes during the evening session of the meeting.

The release made no mention of whether the Chatterjee issue was discussed at the meeting.