Basu asks party to stand neutral on Dalmiya issue

Kolkata, July 31 (UNI) Dissociating himself from Chief Minister Buddhadedeb Bhattacharjee's outburst against CAB President Jagmohan Dalmiya, veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu today asked his party to stand neutral on the issue.

''I will not comment anything on the issue. Our party did not put any candidate in the CAB election,'' the former Chief Minister told UNI.

''I have heard that Buddha has called Dalmiya an evil and all that. I have asked our state Secretary Biman Bose to discuss the issue within the party and make a statement on the issue,'' he said.

Mr Basu's remark came after the Chief Minister vowed to continue a 'war' against Mr Dalmiya and throw him out of CAB for ''betterment' of Bengal's cricket. He described Mr Dalmiya's victory over Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee in CAB election as the victory of evil over good and injustice over justice.

Mr Basu, however, was of the view that the CAB President should also make an introspection into what made the Chief Minister to go against him in public and strive for correcting if anything was wrong in his functioning.

''Dalmiya should try to find out why has Buddha called him an evil, what is the reason. It is necessary,'' he said.

Though the Chief Minister had all along been opposing Mr Dalmiya's candidature, Mr Basu had always maintained a distance from the controversy insisting that the party was not involved in the issue.

CPI(M) state Secretary Biman Bose had also asserted more than once that the party had no role in the CAB politics and that no leader should get involved in it.

UNI KDG PC AY GC1847