All issues will be discussed within the party: Prakash Karat

Amidst a strong demand within the party for leadership change in the wake of its electoral rout, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat on Tuesday said the questions raised over the party's political line will be discussed in its next Central Committee meeting.

He, however, noted that any decision taken in haste would send out a wrong message to party workers. "An in-depth discussion will be held in the Central Committee meet over the questions raised over the party's political, organisational issues," Karat said while addressing the concluding session of the two-day state committee meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday.

"The party needs to give a patient hearing to the criticism of party workers and masses and we need to take lessons from it," he added. A veteran state committee member pointed out that in the ongoing meeting which began on Monday, leaders representing different districts have questioned the present leadership and had stressed on the need for change after the disastrous performance in the recently-concluded general elections.

Leaders have questioned the role of state secretary Biman Bose, former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, and state opposition Surya Kanta Mishra for failing to provide leadership to the party in the time of crisis. Karat, along with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and another politburo member Sitaram Yechury were present in the meeting.

"The call of Third Front with regional parties just before elections didn't find any takers among the masses just like 2009. The party line by the top leadership didn't find any takers as the Third front failed to provide any alternative to the corrupt UPA regime," another leader said.

Another leader alleged that the party top brass had failed to understand that the verbal duels between Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee during the campaigning had polarised the polls between Trinamool and BJP. "We had completely failed to understand that Modi-Mamata verbal duel was polarising the polls. We thought the BJP would eat into TMC's vote share but in reality it ate Left space," he said.

Several leaders also lashed out at the theory of party's top leadership of "collective responsibility" in order to stem any criticism directed towards them after the debacle.