CPI(M) keen on improving quality of membership, not quantity

The draft political-organisational report of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), currently being discussed at the party’s 24th congress, notes an increase in party membership from 9,85,757 in 2021 to 10,19,009 in 2024. But it also highlights a decline in membership quality.

The draft political-organisational report of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), currently being discussed at the party’s 24th congress, notes an increase in party membership from 9,85,757 in 2021 to 10,19,009 in 2024. But it also highlights a decline in membership quality.

“While we have a rigorous recruitment process, it is not really adhered to which results in candidate members without proper education of the party programme receiving full membership,” said a senior leader. “Party members are required to work in class or mass organisations but that’s not followed either,” the leader added.

Deviations from the set norms of the party have also been observed among members in many States, according to the report, which says that a rectification process will be launched soon after the party congress is over.

As a corrective measure, the party will strictly enforce the five criteria recommended at the Kolkata Plenum during membership renewals from next year. 

The report recommends a slew of measures to attract the youth and strike a connect with the people. Party workers, the report says, should be more active in reaching out to believers since the RSS-BJP combine uses “faith and places of worship to penetrate their ideology”.

A senior leader said party members should be active in religious festivals so that they are not appropriated for communal purposes. The report, he said, also recommends carrying out social service such as running tuition centres for underprivileged students, supporting the people in unorganised labour sectors, conducting programmes in residential areas and mobilising children’s movements on the lines of Balasangam in Kerala.

Addressing the media on Saturday evening, Polit Bureau member B.V. Raghavulu said the percentage of women in the party rose from 18.2% to 20.2% between the last party congress and the ongoing one. The percentage of youth in the party also increased in this period from 19.5% to 22.6%. A total of 48.25% of its members belonged to the working class, 17.79% were agricultural workers while 9.93% were poor peasants, he said.