IANS

Kolkata, Jun 28: West Bengal's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday admitted that it had got alienated from the poorer sections of society and said it had to tread cautiously by learning from past mistakes.

"Somewhere down the line we have got alienated from the poor. But this is true not for the entire state. However, our main political agenda in the coming days will be to rebuild our rapport with the poor people," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told members of the CPI-M state committee.

"We have to take lessons from the past and move forward cautiously," Bhattacharjee was quoted as saying in a party reelase after its two-day state committee meeting here.

State party secretary Biman Bose said though the party built up a campaign on political and economic issues after last year's Lok Sabha polls, it lacked depth.

"There were shortcomings in the our bid to get closer to the masses. Specially in parts of the state we did not have the sort of relationship with some sections of the poor people that Leftist parties should have," Bose said.

The state committee chalked out a 14-point programme for the coming days that includes building up an intense struggle against the "anti-people" policies of the central government on the fuel price hike issue.

The party also called for building up an extensive campaign in all the districts against the efforts of the opposition parties to foment lawlessness and anarchy, and building up an agitation for filling up all the vacant posts in the central government including the railways.

"We also have to fight the policies of disinvestment and privatisation," the release said.