CPM Polit Bureau meeting begins

New Delhi, May 13 (UNI) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau was today holding a special meeting to review the party's performance in the assembly elections and consider chief ministerial candidates for West Bengal and Kerala.

The meeting is being attended by all 17 Polit Bureau members, except former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.

Prominent among those participating in the meeting presided over by CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat are former general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat.

Mr V S Achuthanandan, the frontrunner for chief ministership of Kerala, and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee are also attending the meeting.

''This is a big responsibility,'' Mr Bhattacharjee told UNI while emerging from the meeting when asked how he felt after the party's resounding victory in the state.

The Left front led by CPI (M) won a two-thirds majority in Kerala where it returned to power after five years and a record seventh time in West Bengal.

The Kerala state secretariat and the state committee of the party will meet in Thiruvananthapuram on May 14-15 to elect the leader of the CPI (M) legislature party.

UNI KSA YA VP1332