Calcutta, Jan. 21: Rival factions of the CPM?s South 24-Parganas district committee sought Jyoti Basu?s help last night to iron out differences.

A three-day conference of the district unit begins tomorrow at Kishor Bharati stadium in Santoshpur.

District party secretary Shanti Bhattacharya, minister for Sunderbans development Kanti Ganguly, land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah and MPs Sujan Chakraborty and Samik Lahiri met Basu at his Salt Lake residence.

The former chief minister confirmed the meeting, but declined to divulge what transpired. ?I heard what they had to tell me. All that is party matter,? said the veteran leader.

An insider said the party unit is split into camps owing allegiance to Ganguly, a middleroader, and Bhattacharya. Supporters of both vie with each other for control over the fisheries and real estate business.

Sources said Bhattacharya wields more power on the cadre as Ganguly is caught up with the affairs of his ministry.

The course of the district conference could turn choppy as the fate of closed and sick industrial units come up for discussion and the liberals and hardliners get polarised.

After having to weather a storm at the party?s Calcutta district conference, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may again come under attack from party colleagues for his government?s failure to reopen the units.

Sources said Bhattacharjee, the legislator from Jadavpur, will have to defend himself against the hardliners. The ?industry-friendly chief minister?, who will address the meet along with Basu and state party secretary Anil Biswas, will be questioned on the closures, many of them in his own constituency, said insiders.

The owners of some of the units have handed their land to real estate developers. A CPM leader said: ?They have assured the government that the money earned by selling the land would be utilised to revive the units and pay arrears to the workers.? However, a section of the leaders also apprehends ?serious erosion of support? if Bhattacharjee fails to properly address ?the problem of the closed units?.