New Delhi, June 5 (IANS) Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) West Bengal secretary Biman Bose Saturday denied media reports that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had offered to step down as chief minister following the party’s dismal show in the civic polls.
“The question does not arise,” said Bose, who is in the capital to attend a two-day CPI-M politburo meeting.

He termed as “baseless” reports that said Bhattacharjee had submitted his resignation to the central leadership.

“The matter has not been referred to the central committee. It has not been discussed in the state committee,” Bose told reporters.

Meanwhile, party sources said both Bhattacharjee and Nirupam Sen, the state industries minister, skipped the two-day politburo meet that commenced here Saturday.

Bose had earlier said that Bhattacharjee could not attend the politburo meeting “because the law and order situation has to be tackled in the post election scenario”.

Though the two-day politburo meeting is discussing the “preparations for the extended central committee meeting” to be held in Vijayawada in August, party sources said the party is also taking up the civic poll results on the basis of the “preliminary report” presented by Bose.

The meeting, presided over by general secretary Prakash Karat, was attended, among others, by M.K. Pandhe, Sitaram Yechury, Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.

In municipal elections held across West Bengal Sunday, the Trinamool Congress snatched the prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) from the Left and trounced the Marxists in most of the 80 other municipalities.

Coming ahead of next year’s assembly polls in West Bengal, the results of the civic polls have been a shocker for the CPI-M.

Bhattacharjee had also kept away from politburo meetings after the party’s dismal show in the Lok Sabha elections last year.

The 15-member politburo is the highest body of the CPI-M. The present strength of the politburo is 14, as the party removed senior party leader and Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan last year for violating party discipline.