Calcutta, Oct. 4: Days after Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee admitted the presence of Naxalites here, top People?s War and Maoist Communist Centre leaders will converge on the city for a three-day conference.

The apparent agenda for the meet beginning tomorrow is to unite against imperialist forces, but intelligence agencies keeping an eye on such outfits said its larger purpose is to create a common platform where Peoples? War and MCC rebels are able to forge links.

The meeting of 149 mass organisations from across the country will see the likes of Bharbara Rao, Gadar, Raj Kishore Singh and G.. Sainbaba sharing the platform.

Rao and reactionary singer and song-writer Gadar were among top leaders at a Naxalite convention in Hyderabad on September 30.

About 850 delegates are likely to attend the convention at Binani Bhavan in Jorabagan, which comes when a controversy is brewing over whether the state should crack down on the rebels or initiate talks.

With the chief minister refusing to toe the Hyderabad line on ?peace talks?, intelligence agencies here believe the rebels would work on a blueprint to strengthen their arms with support from local sympathisers. The course of action for People?s War activists in Bengal is also likely to be chalked out.

?With several luminaries, the convention is likely to have a public face, where the thrust would be on idealistic struggle. But that would be a part. We believe the closed-door sessions would throw up issues of joint struggle in this part of the country and whether to continue with armed struggle or agree to dialogue,? said a senior intelligence observer.

There is no ban on any Naxalite outfit in Bengal, but the sleuths have set scanners on some like the All India Peoples? Resistance Forum, Struggling Forum for Peoples? Resistance and the All India League for Revolutionary Centre.

With police stepping up operations in Naxalite-infested Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore, the conference is also a show of strength.