CPI-M meeting in Kolkata from Monday

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and CPI-M leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury will attend the party's West Bengal state committee meeting in Kolkata beginning Monday.

The agenda include discussions on the outcome of the Lok Sabha election and finalising the party's strategies, informed sources said here Sunday.

"This is the first time Manik Sarkar will attend a West Bengal state committee meeting," a party leader told IANS.

The CPI-M in West Bengal registered its worst result in the 2014 parliamentary polls, securing only two of the 42 seats and 22.7 percent of votes. The state was once a Left stronghold.

"At the meeting, a road map will be chalked out to revamp the party's lost ground and to resist the attacks on party members, activists and supporters in West Bengal," the leader added.

He said the CPI-M politburo will meet in New Delhi June 6. A two-day central committee meeting will follow June 7 to analyse the Lok Sabha results.

The CPI-M won nine seats in the Lok Sabha election: five from Kerala, and two each in West Bengal and Tripura. It secured 3.2 percent votes across India. It had put up 98 candidates in 23 states.

In 2009, the CPI-M won 16 seats, which too was a big fall from the 44 it bagged in 2004.