Kolkata: In the new state committee of the CPI(M) that was formed following a four-day state party conference at Dankuni, Md Salim has been re-elected as the state secretary while the former cabinet minister Sushanta Ghosh and All India Secretary of DYFI, Himaghnaraj Bhattacharya were excluded from the committee.
The party has announced its 80-member state committee which was elected from the conference unanimously. Of the 80 members, 14 are women while six are new to the party: Pijush Misra, Tirthankar Roy, Shukul Sikder, Kenij Rabiul Fatima (Aleya), Goutam Ghosh and Santanu De. Md Salim was re-elected as the state secretary of the
West Bengal unit of the CPI(M) on Tuesday.
The following five veteran leaders were also included in the state committee — Biman Bose, Suryakanta Misra, Rabin Dev, Amiya Patra, and Jibesh Sarkar. However, leader Sushanta Ghosh and All India Secretary of DYFI Himaghnaraj Bhattacharya were reportedly excluded.
On the exclusion of Ghosh, sources said there were allegations against him by a woman dating back to when he was the West Midnapore district secretary. He was then sent on leave but wasn’t excluded from the committee.
Finally, he has now been removed. Neither was he given a place in the district committee, sources said.
Ghosh was a minister in the Cabinet of late Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya when the Left Front government was in power. He was a key accused in a case of murder and was arrested by the CID after several skeletons were recovered from near his home.
Meanwhile, there are 11 fresh faces among those elected to the state committee. The CPI(M)’s four-day state conference will conclude on Thursday.