Kolkata, Feb 10 (IANS): Maintaining its individual identity despite alliances and adopting equal aggression against both the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP, will top the agenda at the CPI(M) state conference scheduled in West Bengal later this month, a party leader said on Monday.

The conference, to be held from February 22 to 25 at Dankuni in Hooghly district, is crucial for drafting the party’s strategy ahead of elections in March–April 2026 to pick 294 new members of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, he said.

A party leader said that the CPI(M) state conference is expected to chalk out a balanced campaign strategy as regards opposing Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the state.

A draft political resolution proposed to be taken up at the conference said, “The party should pay more attention to the independent political campaign and mass mobilisation around the political platform of the party. There should be no blurring of our independent identity or diminishing of our independent activities in the name of electoral understanding or alliances.”

The draft also talked about rebuilding the party. “A significant increase in the strength of the party requires the rebuilding and expansion of the party and the Left in West Bengal and Tripura,” it read.

It said that in West Bengal, while conducting mass struggles and movements, the CPI(M) needs to pay special attention to work among rural poor and organising them.

“The party has to focus more on the political and ideological fight against the BJP while opposing both the TMC and BJP," said the draft political resolution.

Insiders in the party’s state committee admitted that currently the party cadre at the grassroots level are caught in a dilemma as the Trinamool Congress accuses the CPI(M) of being soft against the BJP and the latter describes the Left and the ruling party as ‘shadow boxers in West Bengal and allies at the national-level’.

This time the party’s state conference is especially significant since it is happening before the forthcoming party Congress at Madurai in Tamil Nadu in April this year, a CPI(M) leader said.

He said at the state conference top leaders are likely to also clarify on the party’s understanding with the Congress at the state-level considering that CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) are arch political rivals in the southern state of Kerala.