Tuesday, April 5 2005 20:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Veteran Marxists Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu have offered to step down from their posts in CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) but the party Congress beginning in New Delhi tomorrow (Apr 6, 2005) will take a final view, a senior party leader said today (Apr 5, 2005).

"Both the comrades have been saying for long that they do not wish to continue due to age and ill-health. They continue to say that even now. They are living legends of the communist movement in the country. The new Central Committee elected at the Congress will decide how they will continue to contribute and advise (the party)," party Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told reporters in New Delhi.

Parrying questions on whether his Polit Bureau colleague Prakash Karat would take over from octogenarian Surjeet as CPM General Secretary, Yechury said, "All of us in the present Polit Bureau are on the chopping block. The Congress will elect a Central Committee which in turn will elect the new Polit Bureau."

Observing that nonagenarian Basu and Surjeet had almost seven decades of politics behind them, Yechury said Basu, after being elected West Bengal Chief Minister for the sixth consecutive term, had stepped down from the post. "This was unprecedented in Indian politics. However he was not allowed by the party to quit the Polit Bureau and he has remained there since then".

Maintaining that CPM had a "collective leadership" he said, "While Basu cannot be remembered without Promode Dasgupta, E M S Namboodiripad cannot be isolated from A K Gopalan".