The new members are Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, new Secretary of the Kerala state party unit Pinarayi Vijayan, West Bengal state unit chief Anil Biswas, his party colleague Biman Basu, veteran Andhra Pradesh leader M Hanumantha Rao and CITU General Secretary M K Pandhe.

With election of Sarkar, Basu, Vijayan and Biswas, the party is expecting to transfuse some badly-needed young blood into the highest decision-making body of the party. Along with Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury, also re-elected into the politbureau, this younger lot is expected to form the next rung of the party leadership.

The party's vanguard represented by General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar, andparty veteran Sailen Dasgupta, remains untouched with all of them continuing in the politbureau. The two members who were dropped are L B Gangadhar Rao and B Chaudhury, both due to advancing age and health reasons.

The central committee also re-elected R Umanath, P Ramachandran, S Ramachandran Pillai, E Balanandan and V S Achuthanandan into the politbureau.

Simultaneously, the central committee inducted six members into its ranks, including two new women members, Mithali Kumar from West Bengal and Sreemathi from Kerala. With this, the number of women in the 75 member central committee has gone up to five, the other three women members being veterans Ahilya Rangnekar, Vimal Ranadive and Sushila Gopalan. The strength of the central committee now stands at 72. Party insiders indicated that the remaining vacancies would also be filled soon.

The election of the new politbureau had been delayed and had not taken place at the time of the CPI(M)'s party congress held in Calcutta in early October as elections toa number of state units had not been completed at that time. The Congress had directed the new central committee to complete the process within two months time.