Over 1 lakh people purportedly joined Mamata Banerjee’s procession against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens here on Monday, though the targeted turnout was 50,000.
The crowd count has come as a relief for the Trinamul Congress as the party’s fortune in the Purulia district has been on the decline since the 2018 panchayat elections when a majority of tribals shifted their allegiance to the BJP.
“It is a huge turnout and it is at least three times more than what we had during the last rally of our chief minister before the Assembly polls in 2016. Then, we had around 30,000 people, but today, more than one lakh people marched with her. It shows overwhelming support to her (chief minister’s) movement against the CAA and the NRC,” said Santiram Mahato, the minister for self-help group and self employment, who is also the district Trinamul president of Purulia.
The ruling party in Bengal desperately needed a large crowd on Monday as BJP state president Dilip Ghosh had said in the morning that people were not taking part in rallies organised by Trinamul against the NRC and the CAA.
A rebuttal of Ghosh’s claim was not the only advantage that Trinamul got with its show of strength, a Trinamul source said.
“The turnout was an indication that there is a possibility of a turnaround in the district where the BJP had surpassed our organisational strength,” he added.
The BJP had secured nine out of 38 zilla parishad seats, and majority in 44 out of 170 gram panchayats and four of 20 panchayat samitis. Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato of the BJP won the Purulia Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over two lakh votes.
The drubbing in Purulia — along with Bankura, Jhargram and Midnapore Lok Sabha seats — sent Trinamul leadership back to the drawing board as it signalled that the tribal community, whom Mamata Banerjee had wooed by rolling out several developmental schemes, had drifted to the BJP.
Several Trinamul leaders this correspondent spoke to said the high-pitched campaign against the CAA and the NRC seemed to have changed the situation as the confusion over how to prove Indian citizenship had instilled a sense of fear among the adivasis who comprise around 20 per cent of the population in the area.
“The tribal people do not have land records or other relevant documents to prove their citizenship. There is fear in the air and we are trying to convince the tribal population that Mamata Banerjee will ensure their citizenship and that’s why people thronged to her rally,” said a district Trinamul leader.
The Trinamul leaders said they had set a target of 50,000 people in the rally and asked all 20 block presidents to bring at least 2,000 supporters each with them. The leaders of all three municipalities in the district — Raghunathpur, Purulia town and Jhalda — were asked to get at least 5,000 supporters each.
“I was surprised with the turnout near the Victoria school ground, from where the rally started. We were not even sure of getting 50,000, but we got more than one lakh people,” said Nabendu Mahali, a Trinamul general secretary in Purulia.