The communists were also blamed for impeding Congress attempts to implement pro-market economic reforms.
"People are fed up with the party's anti-people stance," said senior CPI(M) leader and West Bengal sports minister, Shubash Chakraborty.
India's coalition governments
"These people formulate policies in air-conditioned rooms," Chakraborty said. The Communist Party of India (CPI) was founded in the 1920s to create an alternative to the existing Congress anti-imperialist movement and made a common enemy of the home-owning classes, whether British or Indian.
The movement split in the 1960s, leading to the creation of two parties with one having allegiance to the then Soviet Union and the other to China.
Image: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat talks with party leader MK Pandhe at a politburo meeting at party office in New Delhi on Monday, May 18, 2009.