Bengal CPI(M) Widens Statewide Base

AFTER completion of Party membership renewal, it appears that the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) has strengthened itself further. After the 2003 renewal, the total number of members in the Party was 2,54,617.  The present figure is 2,66,011.  This is a growth of 4.47 per cent. 

Anil Biswas, state secretary of the CPI(M) disclosed this in Kolkata. The remarkable thing about the membership is the predominance of the young men and women.  In the segment up to 30 years of age, the growth rate in terms of membership has been 2.38 per cent.  This is a welcome feature, commented Anil Biswas.

Over the past one-year, 42 Party members have been martyred at the hands of the enemy.  Of them, 27 were Party members and the rest 15 Candidate members.  During this period, 1,279 had died of natural causes.  And the number of members expelled from the Party during this period was 2042.  They were involved in anti-CPI(M) activities.  The membership of another 4,905 was cancelled because of various other reasons, disclosed Biswas.

The number of Party whole-timers includes 3,127, and the number needed further increase was how the state secretary put it.

The number of women members has slightly decreased from being 8.50 per cent of the total membership in the year 2003 to stand at 2.38 per cent of the membership in 2004.

It appears from the renewal reports that the biggest percentage of Party members come from poor kisans, as the table below makes quite clear.