CPM veteran Asok Bhattacharya, the Siliguri MLA who chairs the board of administrators of the municipal corporation, has started a door-to-door campaign to listen to people’s problems, prompting Trinamul to claim that the state government’s ongoing outreach event Duare Sarkar forced Bhattacharya to try out a similar approach.

Bhattacharya, a five-time MLA from Siliguri who is likely to seek re-election in the 2021 Bengal polls, denied being aware of Duare Sarkar.

“My ward visits and interactions with residents are to understand their problems and seek suggestions to improve civic services. I am unaware of any such programme like Duare Sarkar,” he said while visiting Natunpara in ward 5 of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Saturday.

Trinamul leaders pounced on this statement.

“Duare Sarkar is drawing huge response from citizens and is being widely appreciated. It forced even Bhattacharya to come out to interact with the public,” said Ranjan Sarkar, president, Trinamul’s Darjeeling district committee (plains). “The SMC has little to show in terms of concrete development,” he added.

Duare Sarkar, aimed at people left out of welfare schemes, has already reached more than 1.12 crore people through 20,000-odd camps.

Bhattacharya claimed he did not need such initiatives for “political dividends ahead of an election”.