Basu `relents’, chair to be preserved for posterity

CALCUTTA, OCT 31: Stay united and practise the principle of collective responsibility. This was the advice of West Bengal Chief Minister J...

CALCUTTA, OCT 31: Stay united and practise the principle of collective responsibility. This was the advice of West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu to his ministerial colleagues at the last Cabinet meeting he presided over today morning.

“The tradition of continuity of the Left Front should be our main priority,” Basu later told reporters when asked what was his last advice to the Left Front Ministry he had led for a little more than two decades. Waving to the crowd that had gathered to greet him outside his chamber at the Writers’ Buildings, Basu added: “Like I have done, Buddhadeb (Bhattacharya) will also carry with him the LF Ministry.”

Earlier, the Cabinet meeting was emotionally charged, with Basu’s colleagues fighting hard to hide their feelings. Basu himself remained steady, claimed Buddadeb, Deputy Chief Minister and Basu’s anointed successor. “We had never had this experience of someone so important like him retiring.”

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Basu’s moved colleagues demonstrated their feelings one more way — despite the Chief Minister’s reservations, they persuaded him to allow that the wooden chair occupied by him in power be preserved for posterity after he steps down on November 6. The decision was unanimously taken at the Cabinet meeting. The ministers also adopted a resolution thanking and congratulating Basu for having led a united front for so long.

Earlier in the day, CPI(M) rebel leader Subhas Chakraborty told reporters “we would all miss Basu. For all of us, it was a very emotional meeting.”

Congress president Sonia Gandhi too had reportedly sent her good wishes to Basu, and also mentioned his long relationship with her family.