New Delhi: Sitaram Yechury is likely to succeed Prakash Karat as the fifth general secretary of CPM at the party Congress slated to be held in April this year.
Reacting to the media speculation, Prakash Karat told Times of India “Anything is possible.”
When asked if another contender S Ramachadran Pillai could takeover instead of Yechury, Karat refused to answered the question.
Karat reportedly will leave office after his third term as CPM General Secretary comes to an end. He is holding that position for last 9 years. According to the party constitution, the tenure for all the secretaries from local level to general is capped which can be a maximum of three terms with each term being of not more than three years.
Apart from Karat, there will be a new set of state secretaries also since many of current state secretaries have also completed their terms.
Changes in the politburo are also highly expected. Two former West Bengal chief ministers – Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Nirupam Sen will be relieved at their own request. Bhattacharjee will be relieved on health grounds. He has not been able to attend the politburo and central committee meetings since last three years and has been consistently requesting the party for a long time to relieve him. Similarly, Sen has also not been keeping well for quite some time.
On the other hand, another West Bengal state secretary Biman Bose will continue for another term as he has technically not finished three terms.
Yechury, currently heads CPM's international department and is editor of its weekly People's Democracy. Presently, he is also the leader of the party in Rajya Sabha.
Both Karat and Yechury are contemporaries mentored by veterans like P Sundarraya, M Basvapunnaiah and Harkishan Singh Surjeet.
Both of them, alongwith Pillai joined the politburo in 1992. Karat, however, came to the central committee before them.
