The launch of the statewide outreach drive by the Trinamul Congress, with the party’s all-India general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in the lead, on Tuesday was overshadowed by multiple incidents of infighting among party supporters at different venues in Cooch Behar district.

While Abhishek launched his two-month-long initiative, his attempt to seek public feedback on candidates for upcoming panchayat polls went awry in Cooch Behar.

With its “Gram Banglar Motamot (opinion of rural Bengal)", the party on Tuesday formally approached common people to recommend candidates for three tiers of the panchayat system through ballot boxes or a website. There is also an opportunity for people to articulate their views at the workers’ meeting which Abhishek will have every day in rural belts.

The bottom-up approach that Abhishek launched from Sahebganj in Dinhata was derailed immediately after he left the venue as groups of Trinamul supporters were seen jostling with and attacking each other to grab the ballot boxes and ballot papers to keep other factions away.

“They wanted to grab the ballot boxes and ballot papers and put their preferred names while stopping the other side from doing the same. This led to the fight,” said a Trinamul leader.

The boxes were broken and ballots torn and tossed in the air even as police and party leaders stood helplessly.

“Such incidents have been reported in at least three locations. Minutes after Abhishek left the spot, our supporters got into a spat. It is unfortunate that on the first day of the drive, acute infighting, which persists within the party, surfaced,” said a senior Trinamul functionary of the district.

A similar incident occurred at the public meeting in Gosanimari. Also, in Sitalkuchi, a section of party supporters was seen blaming another lobby for taking away the papers and boxes.

Several Trinamul insiders admitted that the unruly scenes at rally venues took the focus away from his first-of-its-kind initiative. The Trinamul heir-apparent’s message to the Bengal electorate — like the BJP-led Centre's alleged denial of funds to Bengal and that he would do everything possible to get the funds from Delhi — was lost in the din.

Later in the day, the Diamond Harbour MP said: “If anybody feels that he will put the name of his candidates in the box so that he/she will get nominations, it will not happen.... Let me assert that Abhishek Banerjee is standing as the guard. Tomorrow, the process will be repeated at Gosanimari in the presence of district leaders.”

Trinamul's state general secretary Kunal Ghosh tried to control the damage and said it had happened because of people’s excitement.

“Given the excitement of people for the new ballot system, the crowd hogged the stage in large numbers in an unorganized manner because of which such a chaotic situation took place,” he tweeted.

A section of Trinamul’s insiders, however, said it would be tough to select candidates through ballot boxes. “There are close to 50,000 seats at the panchayat level and we can’t deny that there is a huge rush for the nominations. The concept which Abhishek Banerjee came up with is meticulous and transparent, but there can be problems in executing it, as was evident today,” said a Trinamul leader.