IANS/New Delhi
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) yesterday expelled a party leader for questioning its support for United Progressive Alliance presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee.Prasenjit Bose, the convener of CPM’s research unit, had resigned from the party on Friday and issued an open letter attacking the party’s stand supporting Mukherjee. However, the CPM announced it had rejected Bose’s letter of resignation and instead expelled him.“The politburo rejects the letter of resignation submitted by Prasenjit Bose, convener of the Research Unit,” the CPM said in a statement.“It rejects the contents of the letter which seeks to malign the political line of the party. The politburo expels Prasenjit Bose from the membership of the CPM under Article VIII (2) of the party constitution,” it said.In his letter on Friday, Bose, a familiar face on TV debates, said the CPM had committed a “grave error” by supporting Mukherjee. Bose, who holds a PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, said the party’s decision to support Mukherjee was against the line taken by the party congress held earlier this year.“I protest against the decision by the politburo to support the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee...I consider this to be a grave error which will harm the party and disturb Left unity,” he said in the letter.Bose also attacked the party leadership, saying they have made “one mistake after another since 2007.”Among the “mistakes,” the letter also mentioned the land acquisition in West Bengal, the Nandigram firing and allowing the UPA government during its first term to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with the Indo-US nuclear deal.The Left camp was divided over the presidential polls on Thursday, after the CPM and the Forward Bloc decided to support Mukherjee in the presidential race, while the Communist Party of India and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) decided to abstain. The CPM has 3.30% votes in the electoral college and the Forward Bloc has 0.40%.