Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamul MP and national general secretary, on Saturday reached BJP stronghold Alipurduar ahead of the panchayat polls, where he compared the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“The Prime Minister is saying he is determined to stem corruption and he is the guarantor. We want to know if this guarantor has met his promises. Has he given two crores jobs a year, reopened closed tea estates, provided funds for tea workers’ development or helped the state? The guarantor has failed,” Abhishek told a crowd of around 7,000 at the public meeting in Falakata.

Then, Abhishek spoke on Mamata’s role. “There is another guarantor who made promises and gave Lakshmir Bhandar, free ration and Swasthya Sathi cards to people. It is time to decide which guarantor people will support… Didi or Modi?” he asked.

He questioned the role of John Barla, the Trinamul MP of Alipurduar, who is also a junior minister of minority affairs in the Narendra Modi government.

“People here have hardly seen John Barla in the past four-and-a-half years. Tell me if he has held a single meeting here on development. On the other hand, the chief minister has come here a number of times and taken a series of initiatives to expedite development,” said Abhishek.

In Alipurduar, only one out of 67 tea estates is closed now, said Abhishek, underscoring the state’s initiatives to reopen a number of closed tea gardens.

“Our government has provided land rights and free houses to tea workers. It is during our tenure that their daily wages have increased from Rs 67 to Rs 232,” he said.

In Alipurduar, a district dotted with tea estates, the support of the tea population decides the results of any election.

“People should vote for our candidates. After the elections, I will collect reports from each panchayat of this district once every three months. If people have complaints against an elected member of Trinamul, we will take prompt steps and he might even be expelled,” said Abhishek.

Shatrughan Singha, the Trinamul MP from Asansol, was also present.

Alipurduar, which shares borders with Assam, elected a BJP MP in 2019 and all five BJP MLAs in 2021. In February, one of the five MLAs, Suman Kanjilal, joined Trinamul. However, Trinamul won both civic bodies (Alipurduar and Falakata).