"We don't break so easily. Our political ties with the people have not been snapped, rather we are regaining lost ground in the state," Bhattacharjee, a former West Bengal chief minister said.
"We were not politically wiped out after the last assembly polls. We secured 1.95 crore votes compared to 2.30 crore votes polled by the Trinamool Congress and those who lost faith in us have started realising the difference between the two regimes.
"And, it is my firm conviction that we will be able to get them back to our fold. There are indications before the panchayat polls," he said in an interview to a Bengali news channel.
"We have begun to realise that we will be able to get back the support of the poor people who left us. We have received ample proof of this at rallies in rural areas of the state," he said.
He said that the CPI(M) was also carrying out a rectification programme to rid the party of of undesirable elements.
Bhattacharjee said that 50,000 to 60,000 party candidates would be selected on the basis of their image for the panchayat elections.
He also criticised the Trinamool Congress government for not being able to take strong action in the Park Street rape case, which took place on this day, last year.
"Crimes had taken place also in our regime. But we had taken strong steps and shown that mentality to curb crimes," he said.
"But this present government lacks the tough mentality to take strong steps against such crimes. The kind of language their leaders are using is really disturbing. We condemn it," he said.
