The Communist Party of India (Marxist) of West Bengal is the West Bengal affiliate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in India. The party was the leader of the longest-serving governing alliance, Left Front, in West Bengal, holding power from 1977 to 2011. Currently, the party holds one representative in West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
History
Formation of CPI(M) In the following period the Communist Party underwent a vertical a split in the Communist Party of India in 1964 with a section of the party including Muzaffar Ahmad, Jyoti Basu, Promode Dasgupta and Hare Krishna Konar going on to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist). There were several ongoing ideological conflicts between sections within the Communist Party about the nature of the Indian State and the characterisation and method of interaction with the Indian National Congress, about the approach towards the ongoing debate between the Soviet Union and China and with regards to the handling of the border disputes between India and China. These debates were further exacerbated by the food movement in West Bengal and brought to the forefront by the rising border tensions between India and China. The Communist Party had also become the second largest party in the Lok Sabha following the 1962 Indian general election with nearly 10% vote share which is described to have brought prominence to the internal divisions of the party.
In the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election of 1967, fourteen opposition parties contested through two pre-poll political alliances; the CPI-M led United Left Front and the CPI and Bangla Congress (splinter of the Congress party formed in 1966) led People's United Left Front. The CPI-M became the second largest party outstripping its former party, the CPI.
Basu Era (1977–2000) For the 1977 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, negotiations between the Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) broke down. This led to a three sided contest between the Indian National Congress, the Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front coalition. The results of the election was a surprising sweep for the Left Front winning 230 seats out of 290 with the CPI-M winning an absolute majority on its own, Jyoti Basu became the chief minister of West Bengal.
The state saw rapid developments in this period, with the Land Reforms and the Panchayat System being two of the many notable ones. In this time, the state had become one of the leaders in agricultural output, being the leading producer of rice and the second leading producer of potatoes. In the first term of the coming to power, the Left Front government under Basu initiated a number of agrarian and institutional reforms which resulted in reduction of poverty rates, an exponential rise in agricultural production and decrease in political polarisation. It also enabled the large scale adoption of technological advancements which had earlier been brought in through the Green Revolution in India in the 1960s. The agricultural growth jumped from an annual average of 0.6% between 1970–1980 to over 7% between 1980–1990 and the state was described as an agricultural success story of the 1980s. During this period, the state of West Bengal moved from being a food importer to a food exporter and became the largest producer of rice outstripping the states of Andhra Pradesh and Punjab which had previously held the status. The Human Development Index was also noted to have improved at a much faster rate than in other states, growing from being the lowest in the country in 1975 to above the national average in 1990.
Buddhadeb Era (2000–2011)
In 2000, Jyoti Basu resigned as the chief minister. He was succeeded by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Unlike other orthodox leaders, Buddhadeb was more open to market and technological reforms. He attempted to industrialize West Bengal by bringing a Tata motors plant in Singur but this erupted a huge controversy. Buddhadeb's government requested farmers to give the land, which sparked huge protests. Later Tata Group ultimately backed out of the project. There was also violence in Nandigram as well, in which many protesters died due to police firing." Exit Buddhadeb, man who saw beyond ideological convictions", The Economic Times, 14 May 2011.
Violence, economic stagnation, the surge of Mamata Banerjee and her TMC led to the decline of support of Buddhadeb and the CPI(M), even among the core voters like peasants and workers. A demand for change started, which eventually led to the fall of the 34-years long Left Front government in 2011.
Out of power and decline (2011 – present)
Structure and composition
State Conferences As Communist Party of India NoLocationYearSecretary Elected 1st Metiaburuz 1934 Mani Chattopadhyay 2nd Chandannagar 1938 Nripen Chakraborty 3rd Bharat Sabha Hall,Kolkata 18–21 March, 1943 Bhabani Sen 4th Dacres Lane, Kolkata 4–6 October, 1948 Ranen Sen 5th Muslim Institute Hall, Kolkata 5–9 October, 1951 Muzzaffar Ahmed 6th Muslim Institute Hall, Kolkata 17–21 December, 1953 Jyoti Basu 7th Muslim Institute Hall, Kolkata 16–21 January, 1956 Jyoti Basu 8th Muslim Institute Hall, Kolkata 8–12 April, 1959 Jyoti Basu 9th Burdwan 17–22 January, 1961 Promode Dasgupta 10th Muslim Institute Hall, Kolkata 22–26 October, 1964 Promode Dasgupta As Communist Party of India (Marxist) NoLocationYearSecretary Elected 11th Dum Dum 6–9 October, 1968 Promode Dasgupta 13th Sisir Mancha, Kolkata 7–10 February, 1978 Promode Dasgupta 14th Mahajati Sadan, Kolkata 27 December–3 January, 1981–82 Promode Dasgupta 15th Tollygunge 29 November–2 December, 1985 Saroj Mukherjee 16th Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Salt Lake 3–6 December, 1988 Saroj Mukherjee 17th Siliguri 11–15 December, 1991 Sailen Dasgupta 18th Kishore Bharati Krirangan, Jadavpur 1–5 March, 1995 Sailen Dasgupta 19th Sarat Sadan, Howrah 27–30 August, 1998 Sailen Dasgupta 20th Promode Dasgupta Bhaban, Kolkata 22–25 February, 2002 Anil Biswas 21st Nazrul Mancha, Kamarhati 9–12 February, 2005 Anil Biswas 22nd Mahajati Sadan, Kolkata 13–17 January, 2008 Biman Bose 23rd Promode Dasgupta Bhaban, Kolkata 15–19 February, 2012 Biman Bose 24th Pramode Dasgupta Bhaban, Kolkata 8–13 March, 2015 Surjya Kanta Mishra 25th Pramode Dasgupta Bhaban, Kolkata 5–8 March, 2018 Surjya Kanta Mishra 26th Pramode Dasgupta Bhaban, Kolkata 14–16 March, 2022 Mohammed Salim 27th Dankuni, Hooghly District 22–25 February, 2025 Mohammed Salim
List of state secretaries NoPortraitSecretaryTermTotal years as secretary 1 Promode Dasgupta1964 - 198218 Years2 Saroj Mukherjee1982 - 19908 Years3 Sailen Dasgupta1991 – 19987 Years4 Anil Biswas 1998 - 20068 Years5 Biman Bose 2006 - 20159 Years6 Surjya Kanta Mishra 2015 - 20227 Years7Mohammed Salim2022–present
Current state committee members NoName1Mohammed Salim (Secretary)2Ram Chandra Dome3Sridip Bhattacharya4Sujan Chakraborty5Abhas Ray Choudhuri6Sumit De7Samik Lahiri8Deblina Hembram9Anadi Sahoo10Kallol Majumder11Palash Das12Debabrata Ghosh13Ziaul Alam14Debasish Chakraborty15Pulin Bihari Baske16Saman Pathak17Anwarul Haque18Goutam Ghosh19Shyamali Pradhan29Alakesh Das21Minakshi Mukherjee22Pradip Sarkar23Shaikh Ibrahim24Shatarup Ghosh25Srijan Bhattacharyya26Amiya Patra27Ram Chandra Dome28Abhas Roy Choudhury29Anadi Sahoo30Kallol Majumdar31Sumit De32Palash Das33Amal Halder34Sukhendu Panigrahi35Jibesh Sarkar36Debasish Chakrabarty37Rama Biswas38Achintya Mallick
District Committees District District SecretaryCooch Behar Ananta RayAlipurduar Kishore DasJalpaiguri Piyush MishraDarjeeling Saman PathakUttar Dinajpur Anwarul HaqueDakshin Dinajpur Nandalal HazraMaldah Kaushik MishraMurshidabad Jamir MollahNadia Meghlal SekhNorth 24 Parganas Palash DasSouth 24 Parganas Ratan BagchiKolkata Kallol Mazumdar Howrah Dilip GhoshHooghly Debabrata Ghosh Purba Medinipur Niranjan SihiPaschim Medinipur Bijay PaulJhargram Pradip SarkarPurulia Pradip RayBankura Deblina HembramPurba Bardhaman Syed HossainPaschim Bardhaman Gouranga ChatterjeeBirbhum Goutam Ghosh
List of Chief Minister's from CPI(M) in West Bengal
Name Portrait Term of office Days in office 1 Jyoti Basu 21 June 1977 23 May 198223 years 137 days24 May 198229 March 198730 March 198718 June 199119 June 199115 May 199616 May 19965 November 2000 2 Buddhadeb Bhattacharya 6 November 2000 14 May 200110 years 188 days15 May 200117 May 200618 May 200613 May 2011
Results in West Bengal State Assembly elections
Election Year Party leader Overall votes % of overall votes Total seats seats won/seats contensted +/- in seats +/- in vote share Sitting sideAs Communist Party of India (Marxist) 1967Jyoti Basu2,293,02618.11%280newnew19692,676,98120.00%280 37 1.9%1971N/A27.45%294 33N/A19725,080,82827.45%294 99N/A19775,080,82835.46%294 164 8.0119828,655,37138.49%294 4 3.03198710,285,72339.12%294 13 0.89199111,418,82236.87%294 2 2.43199613,670,19837.16%294 32 1.052001Buddhadeb Bhattacharya13,402,60336.59%294 14 1.33200614,652,20037.13%294 33 0.54201114,330,06130.08%294 136 7.052016Surjya Kanta Mishra10,802,05819.75%294 14 10.3520212,837,2764.73%294 26 15.022026Mohammed Salim2,839,0674.45%294 1https://results.eci.gov.in/ResultAcGenMay2026/partywiseresult-S25.htm 0.28
Results of Indian general elections in West Bengal Election Year Overall Votes % of overall votes Total seats Seats won/Seats contested +/- in seats +/- in vote shareAs Communist Party of India (Marxist) 1967 2,012,52215.6 %40NewNew1971 4,485,10534.3 % 15 18.71977 3,839,09126.1 % 42 3 8.2%1980 8,199,92639.9 % 11 13.8%1984 9,119,54635.9 % 10 4%1989 12,150,01738.4 % 9 2.5%1991 10,934,58335.2 % 3.2%1996 13,467,52236.7 % 4 1.5%1998 12,931,63935.4 % 1 1.3%1999 12,553,99135.6 % 3 0.2%2004 14,271,042 38.6% 5 3.0%2009 14,144,66733.1 % 17 5.5%2014 11,720,997 23.0% 7 10.1%2019 3,594,2836.3 % 2 16.7%20243,416,9415.7 % 0.6%
CPI(M) in West Bengal Municipal Corporations Corporation Election Year Seats won/Total seats of votes Sitting sideAsansol Municipal Corporation20221.89%Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation202210.95%Chandernagore Municipal Corporation202226.40%Howrah Municipal Corporation2013N/AKolkata Municipal Corporation20219.65%Siliguri Municipal Corporation202214.41%
CPI(M) in West Bengal Local Elections Election Year Gram Panchayats won Panchayat Samitis Zilla Parishads of votes2018 6%202314%
See also Left Front (West Bengal) Communist Party of India (Marxist), Kerala Communist Party of India (Marxist), Tripura Communist Party of India (Marxist), Tamil Nadu
References