Monday, March 20 2006 14:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and Biman Bose, both of whom are politburo members of the CPI-M, would shoulder greater responsibility in the absence of the party's state secretary Anil Biswas who is seriously ill, party general secretary Prakash Karat said here today (Mar 20 2006).

Emerging from his meeting with the CPI-M state secretariat here, Karat told sources, ''Anil Biswas is seriously ill. I met the party's state secretariat. We discussed the issue of carrying our work. In view of his illness, Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and Biman Bose, the two politburo members, will shoulder greater responsibility.''

The emergency meeting was attended by state secretariat members, including party veteran Jyoti Basu, Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and Biman Bose.

The party in its secretariat meeting yesterday had decided that state secretariat members would share Biswas' work on the eve of election. CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechuri was present in the meeting.

Biswas was admitted to a nursing home here on Saturday after he suffered massive brain haemorrhage.