India, Feb. 23 -- A four-day state conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) began in West Bengal's Hooghly district on Saturday, with leaders emphasising the need to induct young members and address the growing distance between the party and its rural support base.

The 27th state conference of the CPI(M) Bengal unit is being attended by the party's national leaders such as its central committee coordinator Prakash Karat.

According to delegates attending the conference, Karat expressed concern over the party's organisational weakness in the state that it ruled for 34 years without a break until its 2011 defeat to the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

"Karat said in his inaugural speech that neither TMC nor the opposition Bharatiya J...