THE 14th Madhya Pradesh state conference of CPI(M) was held from December 17-19, 2013 at Motilal Shukla Nagar in Anuppur – the tribal and coal belt of Madhya Pradesh. The conference concluded with an analysis of the activities and their results in the state of Madhya Pradesh and appraised the work since the last state conference. Two Polit Bureau members of CPI(M), Brinda Karat and K Varadarajan attended the conference. Giving top priority to the organisation, the conference reiterated its call to concentrate on result oriented struggles on local issues and reviewed the state party’s activities in a self critical way. Jasvinder Singh, Dr Vishnu Sharma, Budhsen Gond, Pratibha Tiwari and Jitendra Arya were in the presidium to conduct the proceedings in which 222 delegates and 22 observers attended. The political organisational report presented by the state committee was in two parts and the discussions were also held in two separate parts. In the discussions on the first part of the report, 37 delegates participated and in the second part 32 delegates participated. The delegates agreed with the general conclusions in the report and highlighted their experiences in their areas of activities like the worsening living conditions of the people, dilution of MGNREGA, closure of PDS, erosion of wages and the increasing attack on workers, feudal atrocities and the nexus between politicians and criminals and about corruption. The conference analysed in detail about the incidents of communal violence, its nature, the sharp increase in the atrocities on dalits and adivasis as a result of the grip of RSS and its manuvadi ideology. The conference also discussed about the plight of the rural workforce, particularly about the exploitation of farmers and agricultural workers. The political report was presented by Jasvinder Singh, secretariat member and the organizational report and review by the state secretary Badal Saroj. The conference unanimously viewed that in the face of serious onslaught, the Party was able to continue the struggle during the last three years. During this period, as a result of our struggles, more than 1500 acres of land was given over to the landless; due to the continuous struggle against forcible evictions, some evictions could be stopped and the state government was compelled to make a law in this respect. On the trade union front, a two-day strike was successfully conducted. Besides joint front actions, an agitation in the form of “maha padav” (mass convergence of the workers) was held. At the instance of our comrades we were successful in compelling the government to frame a “women’s policy”. Struggles on the issues of city dwellers were conducted and at some places we were successful also. In the cultural and intelligentsia front, movement against communalism was carried out though in a limited way. During this period, the state Party centre was at its weakest. The conference had an open discussion to make the Party organisationally strong. In this regard, the conference had pointed out that only by popularising the alternative policy trajectory as articulated by the Party and the Left, mobilisations in struggles could be consolidated into political strength. The conference reiterated the decision of the last conference that pragmatism and subjectivism were the main reasons for this lapse and nothing was done in this respect. The conference agreed that there is an urgent need for rectification in the functioning of Party and mass organisations and in this respect the conference had taken concrete decisions/steps. The conference gave the responsibility to frame a “Cadre Policy” to the new state committee. A 30-member state committee was elected including six women members. Badal Saroj was re-elected as secretary. Nine member secretariat was also elected which consists of Akhilesh Yadav, Ashok Tiwari, Jasvinder Singh, BB Guha Thakurta, Pramod Pradhan, Ramnarain Kuraria, Ramvilas Goswami, Sandhya Shaily and Kailash Limbodiya. Delegates for the Party Congress were also elected. The conference began with a rally and public meeting in which Brinda Karat was the main speaker. Badal Saroj, Ramvilas Goswami, Ramnarain Kuraria, Neena Sharma, Rajan Kumar Rathore also addressed the meeting. CPI(M Chhattisgarh state secretary M K Nandi and deputy state secretary of CPI, Haridwar Singh also addressed the meeting. The conference had adopted various resolutions concerning the common people and workers. The inaugural and concluding address at the state conference was given by Brinda Karat. She expressed concern at the open control of the RSS and the corporate sector on the present day government; the capturing of land and the natural resources by the corporates, various fresh attacks on the workers and exhorted that fight against communalism and liberalisation should go hand-in-hand. She called upon the conference to strengthen the state centre and to get rid of the routine excuses in the Party work. She said that it is good to see that democratic functioning is strong in Madhya Pradesh Party and there are no signs of bureaucratic tendencies. She also called upon the conference to go to the people and lead the struggles with direct participation. She exhorted that the relations between the Party and the people should be alive and strong. Cadre is our capital, she said therefore we have to increase the cadre and take care of them. Brinda Karat said that mass base could be strengthened only through political movements and grass root struggles. Addressing the conference, K Varadarajan said that identifying the issues and raising the same and organising struggles on local issues in a result oriented way is particularly necessary. He exhorted the delegates to fight against the various types of untouchability and manuvadi ideology. K Varadarajan said that the forming of BJP-RSS government at the centre is a negative development. Fight against it could only be waged by the CPI(M). The conference felicitated five senior Party comrades, Kallaram Kushvaha, Dhaniram Yadav, Mijhiliya Maravi, Shashi Prabha and Srinivas Chikhle.