Watter at the party office in Darjeeling on Wednesday. (Suman Tamang)

Darjeeling, March 17: Reopening its office here after almost two years, the CPM today said it would embark on a membership drive to woo back its supporters in the hills.

The office, situated at Judge Bazar here, has been closed since the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was formed on October 7, 2007. Jibesh Sarkar, the CPM candidate for Darjeeling in the last Lok Sabha election, had entered the office on March 27 last year but had to beat a hasty retreat following demonstrations and protest by the Morcha supporters.

“It was on April 18, 2008 that we had last called a media conference in this office,” said K.B. Watter, a member of the CPM’s district secretariat.

The party held a meeting of the Darjeeling-Bijanbari zonal committee at Bijanbari yesterday. “Of the 21 members, 15 attended our meeting. We have found that we have 374 members in this zone which is a drop of about 15 per cent since the statehood agitation started,” Watter said.

“We have now decided to openly campaign to strengthen the party. We will go in for a membership drive and will raise issues concerning land rights of tea and cinchona plantation workers, establishment of cottage industries, proper utilisation of funds and restoration of democracy,” said Watter, whose house at Bijanbari had been gheraoed a number of times in the past.

The CPM, which has zonal bodies in Mirik, Kurseong and Kalimpong also, said it had around 40,000 ordinary members including those who enrolled themselves on its youth, woman and farmer wings.

The Left party urged the participants in tomorrow’s tripartite talks to be flexible. “Everyone should sincerely work towards addressing the problems plaguing the hills,” said Watter.