Pressure on lonely Buddha,party steps up call for his No 2

“Why,officially,there should not be a second person in the Cabinet is something the CM should be able to answer. I don’t know why he has not decided to appoint a second person,” said Sen.

Said Benoy Konar,a central committee member of the party: “The absence of the CM due to an illness cannot create serious problems for other ministers. But we need to discuss the issue of sending a representative to important meetings in New Delhi.”

Kshiti Goswami,RSP leader and PWD Minister said that CM’s “gradual distancing policy” is a response towards an increasing demand for his replacement in the wake of the poll debacle. “The point is who will co-ordinate in the CM’s absence,we should have a clear idea,” said Goswami.

Nandagopal Bhattacharya,CPI leader and Minor Irrigation Minister said,“We had an idea that Nirupam Sen is the No. 2 in the cabinet. But it is very strange why someone from the Cabinet was not sent to the Delhi meeting.”

The rift between Bhattacharjee and Sen strides several issues — political and administrative.

Last month,state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta announced in the Assembly that the government was stopping work on the six-lane expressway to be built by the Indonesia-based Salim group. It’s learnt that the announcement was made by Dasgupta in consultation with the CM but Sen was kept out of the loop.

Sen is said to have told his party colleagues that deal was signed between Salim Group and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation that comes under his Industries Department and so Dasgupta shouldn’t have been the one to make that “unilateral announcement.”

Not just that,Dasgupta further announced that the state would not be involved in land acquisition any more. Two senior officers of Sen’s department were identified as “scapegoats” for the land acquisition in Singur: M V Rao,then Director of Industries,and Debasis Som,then chairman of WBIDC. Rao has left West Bengal for his home state and Som quit his job for one in the private sector.

Sen is said to be opposed to what his supporters say is the CM’s “knee-jerk” response to identify land acquisition as the key reason for the election defeat.

At Alimuddin Street,too,Sen and the CM meet only once a week at the routine Friday state secretariat meeting along with 13 other members. But,of late,sources said,rarely do they speak to each other. On August 5,at a party gathering,for over two hours the two shared the dais but not one word was exchanged.