KOLKATA: Reeling under a financial crunch, a local committee of the CPI-M in East Burdwan district of West Bengal -- earlier known as the party's stronghold during the Left Front rule -- has leased out a party office building to meet its expenses.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist, leading the Left Front, was voted out of power in West Bengal in 2011, ending its 34-year rule in the state.
"We have two offices at a short distance from each other. We are facing difficulties to maintain the two assets and also to meet our (party) expenses. That is why we have taken a unanimous decision to rent out the office building for Rs 15,000 per month," a CPI-M leader in Guskara area of Ausgram Assembly constituency said.
The local committee's operation will be run from the zonal office, which is not far from the local committee office, he said.
The building -- Rabin Sen Bhawan -- was inaugurated on May 1, 1999 and funds for its construction were mobilised by local committee members.
The leased property is now undergoing renovation by the lessee, who has since removed photographs of Marxist icons put up in the CPI-M office.
When Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress stormed to power in 2011, the Left had retained the Ausgram seat though the Trinamool wrested it in 2016 elections.