AGARTALA, May 18 (TIWN): After a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, the top leadership of CPI (M) wants Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to take greater responsibility of the party at national level, party sources said.The meeting conducted a preliminary review of the party's performance in the elections and examined the various factors which led to the poor results, party leaders said.

The CPI (M) Politburo, at its day-long meeting on Sunday at New Delhi, discussed the results and reviewed the emerging political scenario in the wake of a landslide BJP victory and the performance of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. 

Besides General Secretary Prakash Karat, the meeting was attended by Biman Bose, Surjakanta Mishra (both from West Bengal), Kerala leaders including Pinarayi Vijayan, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat and S Ramachandran Pillai.

The meeting also condemned the continuing attacks on CPI (M) and Left activists and supporters in West Bengal allegedly by Trinamool Congress workers. Before this meeting, the Politburo would meet again on June 6 to finalize the election review and the political- organizational steps to be taken in the emerging situation.

Basu and Yechury said the Politburo discussed the preliminary reports of the state units on the elections.

The reports on elections and political organization would be placed before the Central Committee for discussion and adoption. Karat has already described the poll results in West Bengal as "distorted" due to the rigging and violence by the Trinamool Congress.