The 26th state conference of the CPM ended on Thursday with Bengal secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra passing on the baton to politburo member Md Salim and a host of old-guards, including Biman Bose, stepping aside to make way for a sizable number of young faces in the newly constituted Bengal unit of the party.

“In keeping with demographic changes, we have fixed an age limit (in the formation of the committee). Based on that principle, one group is taking leave, while a new group is coming,” Salim, 64, said at his first news conference as the state secretary. He added that the committee had significant participation of women and those from the backward sections of the society.

The CPM has decided to cap the age limit for members on the state committee at 72 and for those on the district committees at 70. A former minister and MP, Salim, who was inducted into the politburo in 2015, is the first member from the minority community to have been elevated to the post of the state secretary.

Salim, however, faced serious competition from the party’s central committee member Sridip Bhattacharya. A significant section of the state leadership was keen on handing over Mishra’s baton to Bhattacharya. However, as the three-day conference progressed towards the end, Bhattacharya’s lack of popularity was discussed and debated at a meeting between the state secretariat and the outgoing state committee.

Other than Salim, the names of Sujan Chakraborty and Samik Lahiri were also discussed at the meeting but it was Salim who was picked for the job. Salim takes over the reins of the CPM when the party is going through a difficult phase in Bengal and does not have a single member in the Assembly.

A source on the state committee has said “in these difficult times”, the party chose to rely on a popular face, one who has the experience of “leading from the front”.

Salim’s rise did come as a surprise to several CPM members as he had been facing criticism within the party for pushing through the decision to forge an alliance with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) in the 2021 Assembly polls. The decision had come under fire at multiple district committee meetings and conferences held in the run up to the state conference.

Several CPM members criticised the decision to go with the ISF, which is led by Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui, as it clashed with the basic ideological position of a communist party.

“Yes, it is true that Salimda was the man behind the alliance with the ISF. Many of us had protested. Even our partners in the Left Front had expressed their discontent. Salimda, however, had his way with Bimanda and others,” a state committee member said. “Yet, it is true that right now, we need someone who can fight the battle on the streets,” the leader added.

Many Bengal leaders said Salim’s election to the top post was in many ways similar to how Sitaram Yechury became the party’s general secretary seven years ago. Even though the party was in favour of S.R. Pillai, Yechury emerged as the winner.

Apart from Bose and Mishra, veterans like Rabin Deb, Goutam Deb, Mridul Dey have also stepped down. Around 14 new members have been inducted into the state committee and they include young faces such as Satarup Ghosh, Dhrubajyoti Saha, Atreyee Ghosh, Gita Hansda, and Partha Mukherjee. Former minister Susanta Ghosh was re-inducted into the state committee.

Several others such as SFI’s national general secretary Mayukh Biswas, state secretary Srijan Bhattacharya and president Pratik Ur Rahman, DYFI’s state secretary Minakshi Mukherjee, who were part of the state committee as invitees, have been inducted into the committee.