Agartala, Feb. 24: The 21st state conference of the Tripura CPM will commence tomorrow with a rally at Vivekananda ground here at 1pm.

The party's all-India general secretary Prakash Karat, politburo members Brinda Karat and Biman Bose, who is the secretary of the Bengal unit, arrived here today. They will address the rally along with state leaders like chief minister Manik Sarkar and tribal welfare minister Aghore Debbarma.

People from all over the state will take part in the rally.

Prakash Karat will be the politburo observer for the conference till February 28, when the conference will end with the formation of a new state committee and a new party secretariat.

CPM state secretary Bijan Dhar told reporters here that the closed sessions of the conference will be held in Agartala Town Hall. Before the rally the leaders will pay homage to party leaders who have passed away over the past three years at a newly erected martyrs' column in front of Town Hall.

Dhar said apart from organisational issues, the four-day conference would discuss the challenges confronting the country, communalism and separatism and will arrive at a course of political action to fight them properly.

"Altogether 577 party leaders and workers from all over the country will attend the four-day conclave besides five observers who will neither address the delegates session nor have voting rights," he said.

Detailing the progress of the party over the past three years since the 20th state conference, Dhar said it now has a membership of 87,691, against 76,636 in the 20th conference. He said over the past three years, till December 31, 2014, 1,391 members have passed away, 707 members have been expelled for "unethical and anti-party activities" and 7,092 members have not renewed their membership.

"Nevertheless our growth rate is impressive at 14 per cent over the figure of 2012," he said, adding that the party always looks for quality rather than quantity.

He said the delegates' session would discuss all-India issues affecting Tripura like land acquisition bill, communalism and divisive tendencies. "MGNREGA is an important issue for the people. In the 2013-2014 fiscal, Tripura had received Rs 1,400 crore but this year it has not received even Rs 600 crore. So we will have to discuss the issue and thrash out a solution," Dhar said.

He did not make any comment on any change of guard in the CPM in the post of party secretary amid intra-party reports that he will retain his position because of his long experience and proven organisational skill.