On the third day of the CPIM’s 26 state conference, the party announced that Md Salim has been elected as state secretary of CPI(M) West Bengal along with a new 80 member state committee while one seat has been left vacant.

The party today elected a new state committee that would seek to fulfill its goals in the upcoming days and set the ground for the next Lok Sabha elections. Other members who were competing for the position were Sujan Chakraborty, Sreedeep Bhattacharya and Sameek Lahiri. He replaced politburo member Surya Kanta Mishta as the secretary of the state committee.

Salim was at the forefront when the party decided to ally with the Indian Secular Front, apart from Congress, ahead of the Assembly polls, a tie-up which had drawn instant flak, questioning the party’s secular image since the ISF was led by the Muslim cleric of Furfara Sharif, Abbas Siddiqui. Post elections the poll debacle of CPIM was an apparent blow as many rued that it is the alliance with ISF that failed to win any seats for CPIM.

Salim’s presence in the party works had ceased to remain prominent as he chose to work behind the frontline. However, today’s decision reflected that the politburo has reposed its faith in him to lead the party in West Bengal with the other newly elected state committee members.

The forming of a new state committee is being viewed as an effort to restrengthen the party as the present election trend in the civic polls have indicated that it is still in a position to make a better comeback in upcoming elections and replace the BJP as prime Opposition in the state.

The Left Front chairman, Biman Bose, ahead of the 26th state conference had said that strategies will be devised to re-establish CPI-M’s ties with the people and bridge the gaps accordingly. With the Left having secured the Taherpur Municipality, the party members feel it’s a good sign that indicates people have their trust in the party.

Meanwhile, as per sources, some of the new faces who have found positions in the new state committee include Shatarup Ghosh, Sushanta Ghosh and Partha Mukherjee while some veteran leaders have been dropped. This highlighted the objective of the Politburo of bringing in new faces that would add more strength to the party’s framework. The CPIM general secretary Sitaram Yechury had previously said that age bars have been lowered in the central, state and district committees.