12 Kolkata: CPM senior and politburo coordinator Prakash Karat on Saturday asked the party's Bengal unit to focus on increasing the number of youth members.
He was speaking at CPM's four-day state conference that began in Hooghly on Saturday.
While there has been a substantial increase in youth presence at CPM's political programmes, the number of youth members has not increased substantially. During his inaugural speech, Karat asked Bengal CPM to focus more on youth, drawing parallel to the party's growth in Kerala.
Karat is also likely to outline the strategy for the 2026 Bengal assembly polls.
In 2016, CPM's vote share came down to 19.7% from 30% in 2011. In 2021, it came down further to 4.7% and the party failed to bag even a single seat. In the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, its vote share increased marginally by 5.6%. While the party held several programmes and protests over law and order issues, alleged farmer distress and education-related matters, it could not secure a seat in the LS polls too.
CPM's Bengal netas said the party was looking forward to a larger alliance of Left political forces before the assembly polls. A public meeting will be held in Dankuni on Feb 25, the concluding day of the conference.
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