Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan is against sending CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury to Rajya Sabha for the third time with the support of Congress as it would be against the party’s "political stand".
The party’s Central Committee discusses a third Rajya Sabha term for Yechury from West Bengal. It began a three-day meeting in New Delhi on Monday.
“Accepting the Congress support to send our party general secretary to the Rajya Sabha would be against and not in accordance with the political stand we have been adopting,” Vijayan told The Indian Express.
Vijayan told the newspaper that it would be difficult for Yechury to do justice to two responsibilities at the same time.
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“From my experience, I can tell you, a party general secretary naturally cannot take care of the responsibilities of a parliamentarian. Because he (being a general secretary) has to run across the country to play his role. Those who are seeking his presence in Rajya Sabha want it so because he is efficient. It is true that he is efficient, but he cannot compromise on his other role,” he told the daily.
According to him, despite the CPI(M) supported the Congress in 2004, after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government for six years, to form the government, the Congress took an anti-people stance that had led to the emergence of BJP into power.
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According to norm, CPI(M) leaders are not allowed more than two terms in the upper House. Yechury, whose second term ends next month, has already stated that he will stick to the norm being the party general secretary.
The West Bengal unit of the party had in June proposed another term for Yechury. This was after the Congress reportedly offered its support to Yechury to get him re- elected to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal.
The Left Front has 32 MLAs, including 26 of the CPI(M), in the state assembly. The numbers are not enough to send Yechury or any other Left leader to the Rajya Sabha again.
However, the Congress, with its 44 MLAs in West Bengal, is ready to help get Yechury re-elected to the upper House, the leader said.
The politburo has rejected the state unit's proposal, which is likely to be raised during the next two days.
(With PTI inputs)
