The 7th Provincial Conference in West Bengal held between January 16-21, 1956 says that in 1953, the total number of party membership in West Bengal was 8131, including 2275 candidates for elections. Since then till January 1956, another 4126 members were enrolled. A total of 1261 memberships were not renewed while 200 new applicants could not fulfil certain criterions. In January 1956, the total party membership in West Bengal was 10,775, including 2034 candidate members. In the earlier Provincial Conference of 1953, there were 5859 full-fledged members; in November 1956 this had gone up to 8727. Obviously in the three areas under discussion there had been a significant rise in party membership but there were some weaknesses too. After scrutiny, we could make out that while the party had pushed ahead in popularity and influence, the membership had not grown in the same fashion.

There was a detailed discussion on the organisational strength and weaknesses of the party at the Seventh Provincial Conference held in Bengal and resolutions were adopted accordingly. On April 19, 1956, the report placed at the party congress at Kerala’s Palghat showed that the total party membership was more than 1.52 lakhs. Sohan Singh Josh, S. V. Ghate, Bankim Mukherjee, K. C. George, Renu Chakraborty and Acchyut Menon were elected to the secretariat at the Palghat Conference. I was also one the secretariat members but could not participate in this congress. Comrade Pramode Dasgupta could not attend this congress too because he was preoccupied with a crucial byelection being held for the Calcutta (North-West) Lok Sabha constituency and the campaign had already started. One of the key issues of this campaign was the Congress government’s proposal to merge the two states of Bengal and Bihar.