Salim continuum & new teams: How CPI(M) is planning its revival in Bengal

“In the state level committee, a “central research team” will be constituted. This team will monitor and research the party’s campaign material, including the party’s reach on social media,” a senior CPI(M) leader said.

At the district level, the party will constitute a “district task force” and “district war room”.

“The district task force will do data management, which will be used for campaign and election preparation. The district war room will do data mining, campaign management and election management. It will also do micro-level Assembly constituency management and based on their report, the party will identify which Assembly constituency to focus on,” the party leader added.

A special session was held at the Dankuni conference, where the delegates discussed ways to revive the party.

“In this session, a PowerPoint presentation showed where our party stands now. The result of a statewide survey on CPI(M)’s acceptance among people was also presented at the session held on Monday. The survey also gave insight into what the voters in Bengal are thinking about the political situation of the state,” a delegate at the conference said.

“We are lacking booth-level organisation, which used to be very strong during the party’s three-decade rule in the state. From now on, we will organise it through a special cadre development programme. They will be taught about election campaigning, what to focus on and where, how to strengthen cadre and add new members,” the delegate added.

Speaking about the survey, a state secretariat member said, “We don’t have a ready-made report of the census as after 2011, the Centre did not hold the census. So, we carried out a survey on our own in every village of the state. Accordingly, we now have detailed data on population diversification. How many SCs, STs, OBCs or minority population in each village, or panchayat area. Accordingly, we will now strategise elections so the party can flourish across the state.”

The decision of the party’s central leadership to go ahead with Salim also stems from the fact that he has been able to bring youth energy in the organisation.

Salim, who was re-elected state secretary of the party on Tuesday, took charge of the post in 2022 from Suryakanta Misra, a year after the Left’s disastrous performance in the Assembly elections – the CPI(M) did not win a single seat. Salim also lost in the 2025 Lok Sabha elections from Murshidabad.

“It is true that electorally we did not get success in Salim’s tenure, but the party took many flexible decisions with him at the helm. Many youth leaders came to the forefront and emerged as new generation leaders. This is a continuous process within the organisation and it can’t be stopped midway,” a state committee member said.

A veteran CPI(M) leader said, “After Salim took charge, youth faces in the party have increased. Youth and student fronts are now being seen at the forefront. After the RG Kar (rape-murder) incident, the party organised the middle class to protest against the TMC government in the state.”

This was reflected in the new state committee of 80 members elected “unanimously” by the delegates on Tuesday. Among them, six are new faces — Pijush Misra, Tirthankar Roy, Shukul Sikdar, Kenij Rabiul Fatima (Aleya), Goutam Ghosh, and Santanu De.

Five veteran leaders — Biman Bose, Suryakanta Misra, Rabin Dev, Amiya Patra and Jibesh Sarkar — are the nominated members in the new state committee, led by Salim.