AGARTALA: Former chief minister of Tripura – Manik Sarkar – has advised the leaders and workers of the CPI-M party to “focus on issues related to common people”.

Manik Sarkar urged CPI-M leaders and workers in Tripura to visit villages in the state and organise programmes on local issues to win the hearts of the people.

The former Tripura chief minister claimed that there is a need for self-introspection among CPI-M leaders in the Northeast state.

It may be mentioned here that CPI-M led Left Front had ruled Tripura for 35 years between 1978 and 1988 and 1993 to 2018.

“Before 2018, CPI-M had 88,000 active members, which came down to 45,000 after the 2018 assembly polls,” Manik Sarkar said.

The CPI-M veteran added: “The downfall is steep taking into consideration that the state has around 42 lakh people.”

Speaking on the need to CPI-M to revitalise itself, the former Tripura CM said: “The local party units must adopt a matured approach while selecting the issues.”

He said: “The people will accept the issues which are not relevant to their lives. The party’s frontal wings shall organise the people to organise agitation on people’s issues.”