THE number of members in the Bengal unit of the CPI (M) stands at 2,37,315 till June this year. The concomitant figure for last year was 2,21,962. Thus the party membership increased by 15,343. This was published in the Scrutiny and Renewal Report of the state committee.

The report was approved at the meeting of the state committee held on June 30-July1 in Kolkata. 16,867 men and women have joined the CPI (M) by December, 2000. As against this, the membership of 8,280 were not renewed in this period. The figure includes 162 who have been found to be inactive in carrying out tasks in the run up to the assembly polls. 316 were expelled. 30 comrades embraced a martyr’s death while 954 died a natural death. 207 had joined the PDS.

Of the 2,20,249 who renewed their memberships, 2,11,965 were party members and 17,284, candidate members.

Of the Party Members, 81 are members of the state committee. 1,117 are members of the district committees. There are 4,596 zonal committee members. 30,681 are local committee members. The rest are members of party branches. There are 293 zonal committees, 1,525 local committees, and 24,407 branches. There are 1,18,669 AG members belonging to 13,363 AG units.

The class sources of the members are: 31,614 (working class), 39,174 (khet mazdoors), 61,601 (poor peasants), 26,006 (middle farmers), 2,529 (rich farmers), 780 (petty capitalists), 56,339 (middle classes), others (11,206). 37,346 members represent minority communities. There are 51,077 scheduled caste members. 14,392 come from a scheduled tribal background.

There are 3,695 whole timers in the Bengal unit of the CPI (M). There are 24 MPs, 145 MLAs, 788 councillors, 456 members of the zilla parishads, 16 work in the mahakuma parishads, 2,780 are members of panchayat samities, and 10,089 work as members of the gram panchayats.