CPI(M) to say no to Basu on retirement

Kolkata, Sep 11 (UNI) The CPI(M) today said the party would deny veteran leader Jyoti Basu any immediate opportunity to retire even if he pleaded 80 at tomorrow's Polit Bureau meeting.

''The Polit Bureau has no agenda on the issue. Even if Jyoti Babu makes such a request, we will say no to him,'' party's Polit Bureau member and state committee Secretary Biman Basu said.

Mr Basu's comment came following reports in a section of the press that the CPI(M) patriarch would retire from active politics owing to ill health.

The former Chief Minister had reportedly said though the issue had not been kept on the party agenda, he would raise it at the Polit Bureau meeting beginning tomorrow.

However, declining to attach importance to it, Mr Biman Basu said the nonagenarian leader had been talking about being relieved from responsibilities for the past one year, but the party had not accepted it.

The veteran leader, having a seven-decade political career, had wished to step down from Politbureau during the CPI(M) party Congress in Delhi last year.

The former Chief Minister, who celebrated his 93rd birthday on July eight, was hurt last month after he took a tumble in his residence.

Meanwhile, taking serious exception to the report, sources close to Mr Jyoti Basu said the party had no such plan to relieve him at present neither was there any talk about it.

UNI KDG KK VD RAI2036