Author: Our Special Correspondent
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: May 28, 2003
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030528/asp/bengal/story_2012260.asp
Five-time CPM member of Parliament
Radhika Ranjan Pramanik was expelled from the party today, largely because
of his association with Mamata Banerjee.
State CPM secretary Anil Biswas
announced the verdict at the party headquarters on Alimuddin Street. The
decision to give the boot to the MP from Mathurapur in South 24-Parganas
was taken at a meeting of the state secretariat, he said.
"We had served him a showcause notice
and then framed a chargesheet under section 19/13 of our party constitution.
He kept contact with Trinamul, spoke against the party at public meetings
and press conferences and indulged in other anti- party activities," said
Biswas.
He added that the party's MP from
Hooghly, Rupchand Pal, had submitted a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar
Joshi in April asking why Pramanik's Lok Sabha membership should not be
rejected. "The matter is under the Speaker's consideration now," said Biswas.
Pramanik , also an invitee member
of the district CPM committee, was showcaused in January. Today, he appeared
unfazed when told about the decision. "I was expecting it. I wonder why
the party took so long to take this decision," he said.
The MP felt the CPM had failed to
address the questions he raised. "I asked some pertinent questions over
its so-called democratic centralism and ambiguous relationship with the
Congress and persons like Laloo Prasad Yadav, Jayalalithaa and Mulayam
Singh Yadav. I also wanted to know how the party intended to bring about
revolution by being part of a parliamentary democracy. There are many other
MPs who, too, are not happy with the goings on. Only I had the guts to
revolt."
Biswas said this was not the first
time the CPM was expelling an MP. In the 1970s, an MP from Burdwan, Bhagaban
Das, was thrown out, he said.
