Coimbatore, March 30: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today moved a resolution at the CPM congress, expressing “serious concern at the deterioration in Centre-state relations in all spheres”.

The chief minister added that the “role and responsibilities” of governors should be “re-evaluated”, while politburo member Sitaram Yechury said it should be examined whether the post of governors was “needed at all”.

Neither mentioned any Raj Bhavan occupant by name. Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi had stunned the Left Front government through his “cold-horror” statement immediately after the March 14 police firing in Nandigram.

The chief minister’s resolution did not name Nandigram either but it complained of “undue delay” in sending the CRPF “when the states have asked for assistance”.

“Had we got the forces in time, the situation would have been different,” Bhattacharjee said, probably suggesting that the party would not have had to send in armed cadres to recapture Nandigram, which plunged the CPM into a public relations disaster.

The resolution criticising the Centre has pet peeves like the absence of “safeguards against the abuse of Article 356” and an “alarming tendency of misinterpreting provisions and sending armed forces… to the states unilaterally” but the timing is significant.

The frown comes at a time the Left is locked in a standoff with the Centre on the nuclear deal. More important, signals have emerged from Delhi that the Prime Minister has “changed the rules of engagement” with the Left governments — a euphemism to suggest that the Centre would not go out of its way to help such state administrations.

Several Bengal projects are caught in red tape in Delhi and a sympathetic Centre would have helped remove the bottlenecks somewhat.

In typical CPM-speak, the resolution criticised the “central intrusion in state list in the legislative sphere” and referred to the “growing tendency of the Centre to impose neo-liberal conditionalities to assistance”.

Some delegates touched upon the “confusion and queries” over Nandigram while deliberating on the draft political resolution. A discussion on Nandigram will be taken up during the session on the political organisation report that will include a review of the role of the Left Front governments.

Investment hunt

Bhattacharjee will take time off party work to hunt for prospective investors based in this industrial town of Tamil Nadu. CPM sources said the chief minister would meet leaders of the local business chamber, including textile representatives, on April 1.