NEW DELHI, April 3: Veteran communist leader Jyoti Basu has decided to quit the party politburo as well as its apex central committee, citing failing health, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is expected to take a decision on the issue next week. The aging former chief minister of West Bengal, who ruled the state for a record 24 years, said he wanted to resign from both bodies sometime back but now he would submit his views of stepping down at the party’s congress beginning in Delhi on Wednesday.

Mr Basu quit as chief minister in 2001 on health grounds. He turned down a rare offer of being made prime minister in 1996, a move ascribed to his party’s opposition to the idea of ruling the country with non-left partners.