New Delhi: A two-day Central Committee meeting of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) began in New Delhi on Saturday to prepare the election manifesto and finalise candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
The meeting is being held at a time when the party faces tough challenges in its bastions West Bengal and Kerala.
In West Bengal, the CPI-M-led Left Front faces tough opposition from the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance. The Front suffered major setbacks in two recent Assembly by-elections.
The Central Committee will chalk out a possible strategy to retain its Lok Sabha seats and strengthen the Left Front in West Bengal, party sources said.
It will also discuss differences between the CPI-M and two of its Kerala allies, the Communist Party of India and Janata Dal-Secular, over Ponnani and Kozhikode constituencies.
The CPI-M lost Bishnupur (West) Assembly seat in West Bengal by 30,395 votes to the Trinamool Congress last month. The Congress had withdrawn its candidate from the seat, which the CPI-M won in 2006 by 4,250 votes.
In January, the Trinamool Congress defeated the CPI in the by-election in the politically sensitive Nandigram Assembly seat by 39,551 votes.
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