Prakash Karat's win is a Modi's win; CPM must partner Cong: Somnath Chatterjee

KOLKATA: Former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat was responsible for the 'crisis' in CPM, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has said. "Had Sitaram (Yechury) resigned on Sunday following the voting (on the political tactical line) the party would have been on the path of being obliterated. He has been trying hard to put the pieces together, but there is a limit to tolerance," Chatterjee told ET.
A decade after his expulsion from CPM, for not stepping down from the Speaker’s post after it withdrew support to the UPA government, Chatterjee said "in a sense, Karat’s victory is Modi’s victory.Under the previous general secretary, the party was on the course of extinction. All his decisions and policies cost the party a lot. And it started when he refused to allow Jyoti Basu become the PM, followed by his decision to withdraw support to the UPA," he said.
"The time has come when party members should think about its continuance as a serious political entity and provide protection to people from disruptive and destructive forces like BJP and Trinamool Congress and give them a different narrative, an alternative," he added.
Chatterjee, who described himself as an independent observer, said "in the present political context, it is extremely essential for the CPM to join hands with Congress to resist BJP. People are boycotting CPM. In this situation, the party will not able to do it alone. The representation of CPM from states to Parliament has gone down to a large extent. And with this arrangement, I am apprehensive that it will further go down. The former general secretary has been successful in creating a situation to control the party even at the risk of losing support of the general masses."