CPM West Bengal secretary Surjya Kant Mishra. Photo: HT
Kolkata: The Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, is undergoing an “unprecedented reorganization” to bring down the average age of party members and key functionaries, the party’s West Bengal state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said on Tuesday.
“The party has undergone an unprecedented reorganization, which I believe I have never witnessed,” Mishra said at a media briefing. The aim is to infuse young blood and retire deadwood to lower the average age of party members by at least three years.
At a plenum in Kolkata in December 2015, it was decided that members would have to step down from area-level committees on turning 70 and from district committees on reaching 72.
At the ongoing three-day state conference in Kolkata, the CPM will also decide a similar age ceiling for members of the state committee, he said. The average age of members of the state committee is around 60, but most heavyweight leaders are above 70.
Substantial progress has already been made, claimed Mishra—but CPM appears to be continuously losing ground in West Bengal, previously to the Trinamool Congress and now to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The average age of members of most committees has already been reduced by three years, claimed the state secretary. In some committees, it has been brought down by even 5-6 years, but more needs to be done, Mishra said, adding that the youth now account for a tenth of committee members at different levels.
Meanwhile, speaking about the forthcoming election to five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal, Mishra said the CPM was willing support a suitable independent candidate opposed to the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.
West Bengal state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury last week made a similar proposal, saying that his party was willing to vote jointly with the Left parties if a consensus candidate could be found.
The Trinamool Congress can, on its own strength in the assembly, secure four of the five seats to which elections are to be held. It could even take the fifth if opposition parties such as the Congress and the CPM do not vote for a common candidate.
Chowdhury of Congress had said his party was even willing to support CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury if he wished to run again for the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. But that is unlikely with the CPM central committee recently deciding not to form an alliance with the Congress.
Yechury said in Kolkata on Tuesday that the CPM’s primary focus was to take on the BJP, and in doing so it would seek to bring together all democratic forces. However, on the issue of joining forces with Congress, he reiterated that a final decision on this issue is to be taken at the party congress.
