S.K. Mishra CPI-M's new West Bengal secretary

Kolkata, March 13
Surjya Kanta Mishra, now Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, will be the new state secretary of the CPI-M, the party announced here on Friday.

Mishra's name was proposed by outgoing state secretary Biman Bose and seconded by party politburo member and former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the first meeting of the newly elected state committee.

Bose, who took over the reins of the party in 2006 after the demise of Anil Biswas, became the first CPI-M West Bengal state secretary to demit office in his lifetime. All his predecessors had held the post till their death.

Briefing media persons on the concluding day of the Communist Party of India-Marxist state conference, politburo member Sitaram Yechury said Mishra's election was unanimous.

"The state committee was unanimously elected from the conference. The first meeting of the new committee had only one agenda - election of new state secretary. It was done in only five minutes as there was no other name except that of Mishra," said Yechury.

Mishra, whose work as sabhadhipati (president) of the undivided Midnapore zilla parishad (district council) was lauded in the late 1970s and early 1990s, later held key portfolios of panchayat, rural development and health in the Left Front ministries of Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattachacharjee.

He was among the handful of Left Front leaders to retain his seat in the 2011 assembly polls, when the Marxists were voted out of the government.

After the elections, Mishra was made leader of opposition in the assembly and his role has often been praised by the top party leadership.

After his election, Mishra said: "For us, getting a new post means extended responsibility and commitment. We are committed not only to the party, but also to the crores of workers, and victims of social discrimination."

Mishra said he would carry out his responsibility "till the last drop of my blood" and promised that the entire party would take on the challenge of combating the twin dangers of autocracy and communalism - a reference to the state's ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP at the Centre.

Asked how he felt at being made the state secretary when the party was going through tough times in Bengal, Mishra said: "Yes, these are difficult times for the party, but I don't think that my job is tougher than that of my predecessors who built the party brick by brick through the food movement, semi fascist terror. The Communist Party also had fought against British colonialism".

He spoke of a broad-based Left unity and said the party would strive to launch struggles by reaching up to the people irrespective of political affiliations and rallying the left, democratic and secular forces.